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The classic poem for this issue of The Fairfield Review features a piece by William Stafford, which is one of our favorites. The poem "Ask Me" is one of the Methow River poems, cited in our Winter 1999 essay "On the Stafford Trail" --egh

Ask Me
by William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.


"Ask Me" copyright 1977, 1998 by the Estate of William Stafford. Reprinted from
The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota


CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws of the United States, and that distribution as printed material is strictly forbidden. For information concerning rights via nay medium, contact Graywolf Press, 2402 University Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55114, (651) 641-0077, http://www.graywolfpress.org




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