William Stafford: "Next Time"

Next time what I'd do is look at

the earth before saying anything. I'd stop

just before going into a house

and be an emperor for a minute

and listen better to the wind

      or to the air being still.

When anyone talked to me, whether

blame or praise or just passing time,

I'd watch the face, how the mouth

has to work, and see any strain, any

sign of what lifted the voice.

And for all, I'd know more—the earth

bracing itself and soaring, the air

finding every leaf and feather over

forest and water, and for every person

the body glowing inside the clothes

      like a light.

"Next Time" by William Stafford, from The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems. © Graywolf Press, 1998.

Photography credit: "Winter Wren, Sax Zim Bog, St. Louis County, MN," June 20, 2011 © John Schwarz (originally color).