Stafford's Hat

Today was the final day of our Stafford Studies class at Lewis and Clark. I've been a Stafford junkie for years, so I can't begin to sum up its meaning here. As a project, I produced a digital film on his poem "The Animal That Drank Up Sound," illustrated with his photography and narrated by him in a 1967 reading. It was a fun project, and I feel like it brought him back to life in some way.

I liked this exhibit case because it featured his old flop hat. What a good week. Here is the text in the case: William Stafford wrote almost every day of his sixty-year adult life. The statistics seem exaggerated: 20,000 pages of drafts, 85 drafts, and approximately 3,000 published poems. His archive also includes over 35,000 pieces of correspondence, 16,000 photographs taken by Stafford, publicity materials, audio and video recordings, appointment books, and personal effects. This case includes most of his major poetry collections and his hat.

The traffic in Portland has been horrific this week, but it's been worth it all. Great, great week.