Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation (Poets on Poetry) [Paperback]

William Stafford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1978

Stafford's advice to beginning poets has become a favorite text in writing programs

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (July 15, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472873008
• ISBN-13: 978-0472873005
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Seminal Work of Poetic Insight, November 22, 2005

By 

Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation (Poets on Poetry) (Paperback)

This book of Stafford's essays ranks next to those books -like "The Rescued Year," "Someday, Maybe" or "Oregon Message"- containing his best poems. Here, Stafford muses in his quiet tone and with unassuming wisdom about the essence of writing and teaching poetry.

As he says, "A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them."

This declaration alone, at a time where postmodern self-congratulation is so often confused for deep thinking, has nurtured my writing and reading of poetry more than any of the many books I read about the poetic craft.

This book is more than a collection by a poet speaking of what he's dedicated his life to, it is a treatise on how to live one's life. This is not something I'd say about many works, yet here is stunnigly clear.

Replace the word "writing" for "life," and you decide ...

"When I write, I like to have an interval before me when I am not likely to be interrupted. For me, this means usually the early morning, before others awake. I get a pen and paper, take a glance out of the window (often it is dark out there), and wait. It is like fishing. But I do not wait very long, for there is always a nibble--and this is where receptivity comes in. To get started I will accept anything that occurs to me. Something always occurs, of course, to any of us. We can't keep from thinking. Maybe I have to settle for an immediate impression: it's cold, or hot, or dark, or bright, or in between! Or--well, the possibilities are endless. If I put down something, that thing will help the next thing come, and I'm off. If I let the process go on, things will occur to me that were not at all in mind when I started. These things, odd or trivial as they may be, are somehow connected. And if I let them string out, surprising things will happen."

I recommend it to budding poets, those whose writing is growing tired, or anyone trying to make sense of being in this world. People like me perhaps, hoping for some guidance who -as Nietzsche wrote- earnestly endeavour to "becoming who you already are."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous dissertation on the craft of writing, July 23, 2001

By 

Jennifer A. Johnson "jabbl" (St. George, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation (Poets on Poetry) (Paperback)

William Stafford has a way of writing that makes you feel like a welcome guest in his house. Here he talks in prosaic passages about what is important in writing, how to inspire your own writing, together with examples of his own work.

Reading this book is much like reading Stafford's poetry. The tone is relaxed but captivating, and he makes the task of writing well seem effortless. This book, together with "You Must Revise Your Life," is a fantastic read for writers of any level or ability.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rachelle Benveniste says this a Must for Writers, September 24, 2009

By 

Rachelle Benveniste "Rachelle Benveniste" (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation (Poets on Poetry) (Paperback)

I bought this book for the second time because my first wore out. William Stafford is my muse. I am a writing teacher and he has helped so much with realizing how important compassion is to the writing process. "Welcome every word you write,"he says and of course, all writing is process, it is an act of discovery . Welcome that discovery and keep on writing, he seems to say. It is not about the poem being good or bad, it is about it being inevitable. There is not one poem that
can contain your truth. You write the "bad" ones along with the "good" and harvest a bounty of poems in your true voice. And in this way, Stafford seems to be saying, is how we let our heart sing and how we succeed. This book is a must for every writer.