William Stafford’s “With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach” (Commentary)

The original poem is included in Robert’s Bly anthology The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: Poems for Men, and that is where I first read it. It is available at several places on-line. One site prefers the title “This Life.”

Here is my response--

what this poem teaches--
lines are five six seven
syllables long. There’s some
echoic stuff at line ends

but loose, could be random.
Contact is everything
& muscular mobilization;
senses are muscles too.

The guy’s proud of his
muscles, senses,
creative strong interpretation
of everything he sees,

and (same thing) responsibility
for the next generation.
He was too proud, I thought
back in ‘92 when I first read it,

me being not quite a father then
(Tara would come along soon)
nor being a poet either
and always something of a

weakling I fear.
I was sure I
wouldn’t last long
in that storm.