The third annual William Stafford Birthday Reading will be held on Wednesday, January 16 at 7pm at the

Confluence Gallery in Twisp. Featured readers include members of the Confluence Poets: Subhaga Crystal

Bacon, Vicky Douxmont, Cindy Williams Gutiérrez, Christine Kendall, Kelleigh McMillan, Sam Owen, Hannah

Viano and Greg Wright, along with Liberty Bell High School students Lazo Gitchos and Leo Shaw.

The featured readers will read one Stafford poem and a poem of their own inspired by the Stafford poem.

Following the featured readers, Amanda Jackson Mott, Executive Director of Methow Arts Alliance, will

speak about the William Stafford Methow River Poems project which is currently underway to install

more plaques inscribed with Stafford poems throughout the valley. There will also be an auction of two rare copies of the Stafford poetry chapbook, The Methow River Poems.

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.

Ask Me, by William Stafford

Audience members will also be invited to share their favorite Stafford poem or a personal story about William Stafford. Please join us in this communal tribute to poet William Stafford remembered for his deep connection to the land and his love of the Methow Valley.

---

DATE: Wed, Jan 16, 7pm. LOCATION: Confluence Gallery, Twisp, WA.