Kim Stafford comment

Jim,

I was one of many to benefit from your encouragement to apply for LSTA funds to serve library patrons in Oregon. A humble poet, I had not imagined my work might find a place in the daunting world of grants and statewide service, but with your hospitable perspective and broad welcome, I worked with others (tremendous help all around) to create a traveling program to mount literary programs in "sixteen rural and remote" Oregon communities, where "libraries will serve as studios for cultural creation, not warehouses for completed work." That work was my finest professional hour! I am proud to have been part of your benevolent reign as our monarch of generous service to one and all. As you remember Cornelia Marvin Pierce, and built on what she wrought, we will build on what you helped us be together.

While a multitude of wranglers struggled to top one another
in the capitol building under the golden pioneer,
you carried on unhurrried the long kindness of the book
in the cathedral, the tribal hall, the guild of thinkers
that we call a library, a state of grace in a crazy world,
and with a big Texas view for our little Oregon
you tipped the levers that opened a thousand hands
and offered talking books, traveling books, the food and grace of service
to the hearts and minds of this lucky place.

With gratitude,

--Kim Stafford
Lewis & Clark College