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"Sound of the Ax" brings together for the first time over four
hundred aphorisms and twenty-six aphoristic poems by one of
America's most essential poets of the twentieth century. Many
readers are familiar with the trenchant nature of William
Stafford's poems, with lines such as "Justice will take us millions
of intricate moves" and "Your job is to find what the world is
trying to be," but have never had the opportunity to read a
sustained selection from the thousands of wise, witty, and
penetrating statements he created in over forty years of daily
writing in his journal. In keeping with Stafford's varied
interests, the aphorisms in "Sound of the Ax" explore many
topics--war and peace, involvement, aging, appearances, fear,
egotism, writing, nature, animals, suffering, faith, living an
ethical life, and so on--with his incisive view. The poems are
either made up entirely or primarily aphorisms, and range from the
well-known "Things I Learned Last Week" to some never before
collected. Readers will find much to enjoy and to think about here,
and will return over and over to "Sound of the Ax" for inspiration,
pleasure, and wisdom from an author noted for his integrity and
mindful living.
A volume in the Poets on Poetry series, which collects critical
works by contemporary poets, gathering together the articles,
interviews, and book reviews by which they have articulated the
poetics of a new generation.
In this fourth collection of reflections on writing and the writing
life, the late William Stafford's lifelong refusal to separate his
work from the task of living responsibly -- "What a person is shows
up in what a person does" -- rings clear.
The Answers Are Inside the Mountains collects unpublished
interviews, poems, articles, aphorisms, and writing exercises from
this great American man of letters and hugely prolific author, who
kept a journal for nearly half a century and produced over 20,000
poems -- a staggering output by any standard.
The book begins with the words "To overwhelm by rightness," a
phrase evoking the two demands Stafford made on himself: to write
daily, and to live uprightly. The Answers Are Inside the Mountains
lives up to those deceptively simple ethics, and confirms William
Stafford's enduringly important voice for our uncertain age.
William Stafford (1914-93) authored more than thirty-five books of
poetry and prose, including the highly acclaimed Writing the
Australian Crawl, You Must Revise Your Life, Crossing Unmarked
Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation, and Traveling Through
the Dark, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry.
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