7/23/2019 The Way It is Weaving the Thread.

1/3

Project Review

Jani Barker

July 2, 2015

I came to the William Stafford archives for a Stafford Studies course. More aptly it has been a retreat; a

time and place for deepening my connection with William Staffords legacy of passionate persistence tolive the creative life.

Through rich resources within the archives, combined with the support and patience of Kim Stafford and

Zach Selley, I was generously given access to manuscripts, audio files and photographs that guided myexploration. William Staffords poem The Way It Is, which has been a steady beacon in my life, was the

central focus of my project. I combined personal photographs with the poem to clarify and express mystory my ways of holding onto the thread that I never let go of.

A digital story became the form this process took on. By learning to use the iMovie application (with

tremendous guidance from Kim), an avenue opened for looking deeper into the day-by-day ways themessage in Staffords poem is lived. More essentially, the process and emerging outcome of the film

reflected an enduring lifelong journey that is passed through family experience. Nothing you do canstop times unfolding. You dont ever let go of the thread. And when I must let go, take that last breath

... I trust the thread will prevail.

The truest gift of this experience in the archives has been a phenomenal opportunity to explore wordsand wisdom in a deeply personal way. I have chosen to share my completed short film only with our

retreat group here in the archives rather than putting it onto the website simply because of the privatenature my project has taken on.

The following forms of expression are combined in the iMovie.

Scanned manuscript of William Staffords daily writing, where The Way It Isoriginated.Audio file of William Stafford reading the poem is interspersed throughout the film.Written segments of the poem were overlaid onto personal photographs.

Scanned copies photographs of William StaffordMusic to enhance and reflect the message, as well as to strengthen a sense of continuity and rhythm.

7/23/2019 The Way It is Weaving the Thread.

2/3

A pathway for finding the thread I follow

is discovered when I step into a poem,or maybe dive, possibly stumble

I become filled with the immediacy of meaning,the reality of Yes.

Then a deep sense of homecomingopens the door and a threshold is crossed.

I can smell sausage, fresh from the smokehouse,

Lawrence Welk waltzes hold my small toes onto Daddys dancing feet.Saturday night baths, Sunday morning donuts, Church, chicken dinner infuse and simmer in my soul.

How many hugs, interrupted sentences, and laugh-till-you-cry humor can one hold onto,

before she learns there is no letting go?How many times does she look out the window, dreaming the dream her dream,

before she discovers there is no letting go?

How many ways is there to understand that just be you is a story, a gift which requires letting go,before she finds she wont ever let go of the thread

How many ways is there to say thank you for helping me hold onto what is hard for others to see?

Heres a poem for you my Friend, my Mother, my Father.

Keeping a Friend

by Jani Barker gratefully yoursinspired by William Staffords poem Keeping a Journal

Giving who I am and receiving your beauty

is moment, passage, and pure essence of spirit being.I do not know how to keep you in the sense of holding on.

I am only learning how to keep you ~ as a gardener attends towhat grows in light and shade,

how to nourish simply by loving and learningto recognize the beauty she treasures.

Reading a passage, hearing a poem, breathing in a place of wonder

I bump along with my own perceptions.

Some are gifts easily recognized,others, filled with empty confusion.Your laughter, listening heart, and shared quest for what is true

weaves through these moments and I recognize that I am not alone.You are within my outstretched hand and hurting head.

You are surrounding my bliss and passion.You are friend my mother my father

I am now you I am just Jani the one Ive been waiting for.

7/23/2019 The Way It is Weaving the Thread.

3/3

The Way It Is

by William Stafford

Theres a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesnt 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 cant get lost.Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.Nothing you do can stop times unfolding.

You dont ever let go of the thread.

Keeping a Journal

by William Stafford

At night it was easy for me with my little candle

to sit late recording what happened that day. Sometimesrain breathing in from the dark would begin softlyacross the roof and then drum wildly for attention.

The candle flame would hunger after each waftingof air. My pen inscribed thin shadows that leaned

forward and hurried their lines along the wall.

More important than what was recorded, these eveningsdeepened my life; they framed every event

or thought and placed it with care by others.As time went on, that scribbled wall even if

it stayed blank became where everythingrecognized itself and passed into meaning.