Poetry, it hasn't been at the top of my reading list for a long time.  Returning to Marylhurst University last year to complete what I began (back in the fall of 1987 at Seattle Pacific University), I am struck by the richness of verse that I've let slip by.  Today, I'm attempting to remedy that.  This small project endeavors to share two poems by two poets: the Pacific Northwest poets William Stafford (January 17, 1914 – August 28, 1993) and Theodore Roethke (May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963).  Each poem touches upon a similar dimension of nature, which is highlighted here through my photography.  

While Stafford’s “The Tillamook Burn” evokes a re-birth of nature or self, Roethke’s “Journey into the Interior” uses the imagery of nature to convey a journey (or examination) into the depths of one’s self: a journey of a less optimistic nature.  Both poets are utilizing the imagery found all about us in nature, but using this similar imagery to achieve altogether different ends.  For more discussion on the importance of the sense of place in works of this nature, I suggest On William Stafford, The Worth of Local Things, edited by Tom Andrews.  This book is available to read on Google Books or available for purchase on Amazon.  Another title, which is much more difficult to find, is entitled Theodore Roethke, William Stafford, and Gary Snyder: The Ecological Metaphor as Transformed Regionalism.  (For a brief personal reflection on the critical importance of the sense of place within my own fiction, please visit this blog post.)

I am also sharing a variety of other online resources and media to help facilitate discussions and (perhaps) further academic research.  Please feel free to share comments or additional links through the Google Group (Digital Humanities) referenced at the bottom of this page.  As a student for a single semester at University of Kansas in 1989, I am particularly interested in learning more about Stafford's time in Lawrence, Kansas. 

As alluded to earlier, an important component of this project was visual exploration of the sense of place within these poems.  To further explore this dimension, I'm including a map of the Tillamook area following Stafford's poem below.  


​“The Tillamook Burn” by William Stafford

The Tillamook Burn
These mountains have heard God;
they burned for weeks. He spoke
in a tongue of flame from sawmill trash
and you can read His word down to the rock.
In milky rivers the steelhead
butt upstream to spawn
and find a world with depth again,
starting from stillness and water across gray stone.
Inland along the canyons
all night weather smokes
past the deer and the widow-makers–
trees too dead to fall till again He speaks.
Mowing the criss-cross trees and the listening peaks.

​“Tillamook Burn,” by William Stafford, copyright © Kim Stafford.
​

Two Tillamook Burn Links & Map:


Tillamook County, Oregon 

(Video by CritialPast on the Tillamook Burn)
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​“Journey into the Interior” by Theodore Roethke

In the long journey out of the self,
There are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
Where the shale slides dangerously
And the back wheels hang almost over the edge
At the sudden veering, the moment of turning.
Better to hug close, wary of rubble and falling stones.
The arroyo cracking the road, the wind-bitten buttes, the canyons,
Creeks swollen in midsummer from the flash-flood roaring into the narrow valley.
Reeds beaten flat by wind and rain,
Grey from the long winter, burnt at the base in late summer.
–Or the path narrowing,
Winding upward toward the stream with its sharp stones,
The upland of alder and birchtrees,
Through the swamp alive with quicksand,
The way blocked at last by a fallen fir-tree,
The thickets darkening,
The ravines ugly.
​


Stafford Videos

Roethke Videos



​​Miscelaneous Links & Resources
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"A Conversation with ​William Stafford"  (1983 interview by Tim Barnes)

​William Stafford Archives

A Selection of William Stafford Poetry

Biographical Sketch of Stafford from Univ. of Kansas

Tillamook Burn in Oregon Encyclopedia

William Stafford Poetry from Poem Hunter (PDF)

Theodore Roethke Poetry from Poem Hunter (PDF)
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​Theodore Roethke on Amazon

William Stafford at Powell's Books