“I wish I could wrap up the glitter star-green of this moment and hand it to you like an angel gift. Give you the heat lightning flying in jagged silence over the distant mountains. And the smell of September prairie grass and the even fainter scent of October pine now descending . . .”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“Spring is a time to make up a big bouquet of flowers for someone you love, or are trying to love, or are in love with.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“I promise to dream with you both great dreams and small dreams. To ask your counsel in times of uncertainty. To honor your silence when you seek to be alone. To be ever wondrous at your curiosities and revelations. And to be ever rejuvenated by your passions . . .”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“A Mother Steeled by Stewart Stafford
A haunted mother in despair's glade,
That echoed with her feral screams,
Sifting through tiny bones for reasons,
Catharsis an absent but invited guest.
Healed knees, once bloody, kneel,
Cobwebs wiped, storm damage fixed,
Bittersweet, her baby has taken wing,
His bruises, all of him, now flown above.
Daybreak's star field on the final vigil,
Dropping the self-flagellation whip,
Fragment memories of her infant taken,
Striding forth, her scars a living map.
© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
“I gather the last remnants of the evening’s breeze, so cool and lazy within my arms, feeling it curl up like a small and innocent kitten.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“Sometimes we make being happy so difficult. And being thankful such a chore.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“Thanksgiving - fall's finale. Best damn holiday of the year in my worldly estimation.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“Take off my clothes and there becomes a man. Take off my skin and there becomes my bones. Break all my bones and there becomes my heart. Smash my heart and there becomes my soul. And that you cannot take.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
“Sometimes I travel just to be overwhelmed – for it’s good every now and then to be overwhelmed.”
Source: The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift