For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid by William Stafford

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For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot--air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.

William Stafford

Read poems about / on: fear, world, friend

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Michael Joseph Ferguson (1/29/2008 3:02:00 AM)
Like a true elder and poetic friend, Stafford's great vision and life experience fashions a verbal sea-worthy vessel for the reader. No swimming is necessary.

John Tiong Chunghoo (3/25/2006 12:19:00 AM)
it is so true.

this face is
a shadow too
the real me i hide from light

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