This is my favorite William Stafford poem, and, much to my surprise, I came across a quote from the Vedic Literature with a similar theme, only it extends it to its ultimate spiritual conclusion. So I call this grouping: uncommon thread … cosmic thread.
THE WAY IT IS
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
—William Stafford
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He who knows the fine-drawn thread of which the creatures that we see are spun, who knows the thread of that same thread—he also knows Brahman, the Ultimate.
—Atharva Veda Samhita 10.8.37
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Listen to The Way It Is performed by Daniel Sperry from his CD: William Stafford: Cutting Loose ~ A Tribute To William Stafford.
See a video of cellist and composer Daniel Sperry perform William Stafford’s poem, “The Way It Is.”
And see William Stafford’s last poem: “Are you Mr. William Stafford?” also performed by Daniel Sperry.
This post sheds additional light on the notion of following a thread: William Stafford’s poetry lightened his life having woven a parachute out of everything broken.
Tags: aphorism, Brahman, poem, quotation, The Way It Is, thread, Veda, William Stafford
The Uncarved Blog 
September 15, 2009 at 12:12 pm |
Great, thank you for sharing these…
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January 16, 2011 at 5:57 am |
Beautiful!! There is something very similar in the conclusion of Mouse Hunt http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119715/ a comedy full of hilarious gags
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March 11, 2015 at 12:33 pm |
[…] poem by William Stafford—The Way It Is describes the kind of perspective on life Larry Darrell came to […]
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November 21, 2015 at 1:08 pm |
[…] William Stafford—The Way It Is, also recorded by Daniel Sperry, and other Stafford poems I love posted on The Uncarved […]
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December 21, 2015 at 10:40 pm |
[…] is my favorite poem by William Stafford—The Way It Is. I had found a verse from one of the Vedas that extends the theme in the poem to its ultimate […]
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January 5, 2016 at 11:06 pm |
[…] William Stafford—The Way It Is, including the Vedic expression I added. It extends the poem’s theme to its ultimate […]
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December 4, 2017 at 2:03 pm |
[…] Speaking of a fundamental thread that’s invisible to the eye, see William Stafford—The Way It Is. […]
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May 1, 2018 at 1:13 pm |
[…] He concluded with reading the poem, Ask Me. It’s one of my favorite Stafford poems along with The Way It Is, You and Art, When I Met My Muse, and many more posted on my […]
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November 30, 2020 at 1:06 pm |
[…] Remembering My Father, William Stafford. The lines from his most profound and favorite poem, The Way It Is, were used as chapter headings. I’ve posted more of his poems on The Uncarved […]
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January 25, 2021 at 10:42 am |
[…] The Way It Is […]
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May 3, 2021 at 12:55 pm |
Very nice. this reminds me of Boehm’s theory of the implicate and Explicate Orders. That all things that are or every will be exist in the implicate order like a ball of thread and life as we experience is the thread as it is unravelling in the explicate order, seeing, experiencing the particularity of the whole “in time.” Of course,, it doesn’t actually unravel, it is still whole, that’s just how we experience the wholeness. Reminds me too of the Christian belief of “the fall.” the falling away from the undivided wholeness of God, only to be reunited again at the end of our journey.
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May 3, 2021 at 3:29 pm |
Interesting that you mention a ball of thread unraveling. Another post on William Stafford sheds additional light on the notion of following a thread. He subscribed to William Blake’s idea of following, winding up a gold string as it takes you into Jerusalem’s gate, heaven’s gate. This was the way Stafford wrote early each morning following hints that took him in the direction of poem, which, when completed, felt like heaven within him. https://theuncarvedblog.com/2021/01/25/william-staffords-poetry-lightened-his-life-having-woven-a-parachute-out-of-everything-broken/.
But you’re also right about attuning oneself to the underlying wholeness. It also reminds me of TS Eliot’s Little Gidding in The Four Quartets, where towards the end he writes: We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.
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