{"id":6235,"date":"2024-01-22T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T15:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/william-staffords-poetic-calibration-of-perspective-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2024-01-22T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T15:01:17","slug":"william-staffords-poetic-calibration-of-perspective-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/william-staffords-poetic-calibration-of-perspective-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"William Stafford\u2019s Poetic Calibration of Perspective \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

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\"Yes:<\/a><\/p>\n

When a recent bout of illness sent me sulking with indignant disappointment at the ruin of long laid plans, I had to remind myself that we were never promised any of this<\/a>; that it is hubris and self-importance and almost touching delusion to expect an indifferent cosmos to bend to our will, our wishes, and our plans; that meeting the universe on its own terms is the end of suffering. <\/p>\n

Through the haze of what Virginia Woolf called the \u201cwastes and deserts of the soul\u201d<\/a> exposed by being ill, I remembered a lovely calibration of perspective by the poet and peace activist William Stafford<\/strong> (January 17, 1914\u2013August 28, 1993), found in the posthumous collection The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n