Article on Stafford in Brethren news publication

In the April 22, 2008 issue of the Church of the Brethren Newsline, Brian Nixon, a member of the Church of the Brethren recounts a poetry reading William Stafford gave at the denomination's 1991 Annual Conference in Portland, OR. I'm pretty certain I was at that conference, but I didn't know anything about Stafford then, at age 12.

Nixon tells this story:

As an impressionable college student, I looked over the plethora of lectures, seeing one that read, "Poetry Reading: William Stafford." This sounded great to me, but I was unsure of exactly who Stafford was. As a member of the Church of the Brethren, I had heard of Mr. Stafford, but was not yet quite "into" him. I knew he published a book of poetry with Brethren Press called "A Scripture of Leaves," and was well loved among the Brethren folk.

But as I stood there and looked at the other conference offerings, I finally decided upon a folk group concert instead (you see, I was "into" music).

Read the rest here.

What Prayer Is: A Poem

I've been reading A Scripture of Leaves, Stafford's only poetry collection published by Brethren Press. I wrote this poem after reading "To You Around Me," and "An Offering."

UPDATE October, 31 2006: I submitted the poem to Alba: A Journal of Short Poetry. If it is published, I will link to it here.

UPDATE January 12, 2007: The poem has been published in Issue 14, January 2007 of Alba. Read it here.