101 Poems, Number 64

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

64: “Home,” in Another World Instead, 2008, by William Stafford (1914–93) 

“Our father owned a star”—and so 

Begins this poem that I saw 

On Writer’s Almanac.* You know 

Those poems that can swiftly draw 

You in—you recognize them. Fast. 

And, yes, you quickly recognize 

That this is one you want to last— 

It’s one you want to memorize. 

And so I did, and now it stands 

There in my aging brain beside 

Those many others. And their hands 

Are joined, and I feel gratified 

That Stafford stands with Dickinson 

And Shakespeare, Donne, and Cummings and 

Those others who have firmly won 
A place there in my Memory Land.

*March 15, 2017

Link to poem.