<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Ask Me</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Some time when the river is ice ask me </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">mistakes I have made. Ask me whether </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">what I have done is my life. Others </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">have come in their slow way into </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">my thought, and some have tried to help </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">or to hurt: ask me what difference </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">their strongest love or hate has made.</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I will listen to what you say. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You and I can turn and look </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">at the silent river and wait. We know </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the current is there, hidden; and there </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">are comings and goings from miles away </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">that hold the stillness exactly before us. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What the river says, that is what I say.</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- William Stafford </p></div></body></html>