Ask Me in  General   

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.

By William Stafford

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Other poems by William Stafford:

• A Ritual To Read To Each Other
• Across Kansas
• Allegiances
• Ask Me
• Atavism
• For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid
• Just Thinking
• Lit Instructor
• Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing
• Objector
• Remembering Mountain Men
• Security
• The Light By The Barn
• Thinking For Berky
• This Life
• Traveling Through The Dark
• Waking at 3 a.m.
• When I Met My Muse