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Concentric Futures
Kim Stafford

Inside my life resides a simpler life,
and inside that another, concentric
Russian dolls of happiness, each
waiting for me to show them sky,
birdsong, rain, the gifts of plain days,
until at last my innermost original
shrugs off all husks of complexity
to wake singing in this world.

—
Kim Stafford is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, and author of The Muses Among Us and Singer Come from Afar. He served as Oregon’s Poet Laureate from 2018-2020, and has taught writing in Mexico, Scotland, Italy, and Bhutan.

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