Why Write to Mr. William Stafford?

Why? As a way of understanding poetry, learning how I think and feel about poems, understand myself, learn about metaphor and create something others might be interested in reading.

One of the way teachers encourage students to write is to get them to write a response to a prompt.  One of the ways to learn about poetry is to write a response addressed to the author of a poem.  In this case, I'm addressing my responses to Mr. William Stafford.  Mr. Stafford passed away in 1993.

He was very open about his process of writing.  He published books about creative writing and about writing poems.  He taught creative writing at Lewis & Clark College.

The poems come from the book "The Way It Is".
Stafford, William. The Way It Is. New York: Graywolf, 1999. Print.

Richard Turnock