“Prairie Town” & “Coronado Heights,” by William Stafford (Laurie Hoag, Feed Reader)
These two used to stare for hours at prairie dogs…and found that cities of gold are dust.
I don’t know enough about poets to have a favorite, Laurie writes, but Stafford definitely hits close to home. Not only did he live in Kansas and was born in my hometown, Hutchinson, but I was acquainted with the Staffords in my high school’s small town of Nickerson. Margaret Stafford, William’s sister-in-law, was my grade school librarian and one of the sweetest ladies I’ve known and Margaret’s son, Jon Ingersol, was my high school sweetheart.
I’ve since moved from Hutchinson to Lindsborg’s Smoky Valley and I can see Coronado Heights from our backyard! Now, this information doesn’t make me a William Stafford expert, but it certainly tips the scales in favor of Stafford’s poetry!
“Prairie Town” is in Stafford’s selected poems, The Darkness Around Us is Deep (Harper Perennial, 1994). “Coronado Heights” is in Kansas Poems of William Stafford, edited by Denise Low (Woodley, 2010).
Belly up, it's A Poetry Feed. 
We all know Laurie as a comment-thread all-star around here. So today it’s fun to turn the tables and say: Great job, Laurie. I really enjoyed this! Stafford is one of my lasting favorites.
His book, The Way It Is
is one of a small handful I read through or nearly through every year.
Thank you!