While constantly reading Stafford’s work and thinking about his ongoing relevance as an American poet and seer, my radar is always up for the telling moment that resonates politically and socially with now. We know this poems resonate with internal and personal readings. But the outward view adds a dimension worthy of consideration. At least that’s what I tell myself as I work towards completing my biography-in-progress of Stafford. Posting here one stanza from a poem, but I intend to grow this thread as I dig back in my notes and revisit the many books that are piling up on my shelves and desks. At least for now, the excerpts will stand for themselves, posted, that is, without comment.

From “Help from History,” which dates to 1979-80 and was first collected in An Oregon Message in 1987 (p. 128):

Those mad rulers at times elsewhere,

inhuman and yet mob-worshipped,

leaders of monstrous doctrine, unspeakable

beyond belief, yet strangely attractive to

the uninstructed.