William Stafford: "Why I Am Happy"

Now has come, an easy time. I let it
roll. There is a lake somewhere
so blue and far nobody owns it.
A wind comes by and a willow listens
gracefully.

I hear all this, every summer. I laugh
and cry for every turn of the world,
its terribly cold, innocent spin.
That lake stays blue and free; it goes
on and on.

And I know where it is.

"Why I Am Happy" by William Stafford, from Why I Am Happy. © Paper Crane Press, 1998.

Photography credit: "Willow on Water," by David Aimone (originally color).