The Foundation of Poetry

In researching for the revised Druid Grade teaching materials I have come across some gems: the work of the American poet William Stafford and his son Kim Stafford, and the website and daily podcast of The Writers Almanac. Each day, The Writer’s Almanac podcast features Garrison Keillor recounting the highlights of this day in history and reading a short poem or two. It’s brief – about 10 minutes – and the website has a huge archive of material to read and listen to. A great resource for any lover of poetry and literature.

I was reading some of Stafford’s poetry on the site and made it across to his son’s site. He has produced some touching videos, and a ‘how to’ on digital story-telling: which any online Bard should find helpful. I can’t paste any videos in here, so go to his site and look for example at ‘Journey to My Father’ which I found very moving, and which reminded me of my Druid teacher’s war-time pacifism.

Here are the opening lines of one of Kim Stafford’s poems. The full poem is on his site with an accompanying video:

The Foundation of Poetry

In the debris of the damaged world
seek the foundation of poetry:
long touch of sunlight across cold ground.