An Oregon Message

By William E. Stafford 1914–1993

When we first moved here, pulled

the trees in around us, curled

our backs to the wind, no one

had ever hit the moon—no one.

Now our trees are safer than the stars,

and only other people's neglect

is our precious and abiding shell,

pierced by meteors, radar, and the telephone.

From our snug place we shout

religiously for attention, in order to hide:

only silence or evasion will bring

dangerous notice, the hovering hawk

of the state, or the sudden quiet stare

and fatal estimate of an alerted neighbor.

This message we smuggle out in

its plain cover, to be opened

quietly: Friends everywhere—

we are alive! Those moon rockets

have missed millions of secret

places! Best wishes.

Burn this.

William Stafford, “An Oregon Message” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Source: The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 1998)

Biography

"If you have been wondering where the articulate, readable poems have gone in the last third of the 20th century, you might start with [William] Stafford," declares Victor Howes of the Christian Science Monitor. A pacifist and one of "the quiet of the land," as he often describes himself, Stafford is known for his unique method of composition, his soft-spoken voice, and his independence from social and literary expectations. As

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