Six Poems by R. W. Stephens

 

Like Extended Haiku 

 

 

Tango music muted, open window  

Fading summer light shadows 

Chair on the porch 

An empty glass

  

 

The mantle clock never strikes. 

Liminal stasis made physical 

Time stalled, frozen  

On its fading face.

 

 

A faded picture captures 

A scene of sunny,  snow laden trees 

Winter is here,  

Melting into spring

 

 

Tall trees sway with feathery whispers 

In the waves   

Of a damp wind at sunset.  

The sacred voice of fog  

 

 

Meet on empty beach 

Avoiding boiling sand 

Nod hello as we pass. 

Solitude returns as we part

  

 

Dream of redwoods green in the snow 

Imagine them young 

After a great fire 

Redwoods’ life as a Phoenix

R. W. Stephens is a native of California, born in San Francisco. Now living in Oakland across the bay. There was a sojourn to Wisconsin for university, then  return home with a BS in English. He has had an interesting life, from working in a nuclear power plant to making specialty contact lenses with a week as a guest in a rural village in central China in between. He has been published in  Lothlorien Poetry Journal Anthologies, Synchronized Chaos, and second place in an International Literary Contest Nature 2023. He is the organizer and coordinator for a small writing group based in Hayward, California. “May this wine I pour you sweeten the lives of those you have left behind.” rws