National Poetry Month #4: Ask Me

Palouse River at Palouse Falls

I love this poem for so many reasons. Every time I read it, a different layer of meaning emerges. I always love what the river says.

Chewack River, Methow Valley

Ask Me

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 to 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. 

William Stafford

Spokane River, Spokane, WA