Here, as an introduction, are some representative poems, and brief remarks about the original publications. (The typefaces and layouts in the books are not reproduced here. To see the poems as they appear in print, go to the Home page, where you can open a flipbook or download a pdf.)
The verses in the first two books,The Sum (1958) and Between Matter and Principle (1963), are those of a beginner. No ordinary beginner, but Stephens said he had to unlearn the way he wrote them. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some fine poems . . . .
From The Sum.
Small Song
From Between Matter and Principle— this poem reflects the feelings of a man raised on the high plains, within sight of the Rockies, upon arriving in Santa Barbara to begin a professorship.
Hap
The Heat Lightning poems (1967) are set in summertime on the family farm, a place for which Stephens always had deep affection. It was still being farmed by his brother Dave when these verses were written, though the city of Greeley was approaching.
Second Evening
The Summer
In Tree Meditation and Others (1970), the poems move into new territory and show increasing flexibility and agility.
To Fran
Late to Pray
The Heavily Watered Whiskey of This December Sunlight
Much of the research for White River Poems (1976) was done in 1967-1968, when Stephens spent a year teaching at the University of Denver. This book explores the conflict between a band of Utes and an Indian Agent (and more generally, between the Indians and the growing White population of Colorado). It includes a variety of forms; its extended length is unique in Stephens’s work. He later described it as “an attempt at a tragedy.” The following poem is addressed to a Ute warrior.
Piah (Part I)
In Plain Air (1982): The poet has hit his stride.
Autumn: Island
First Deposition
Work
Second Deposition
End of September
In the Habitat of the Magpie
The Hendry’s sonnets, a part of In Plain Air, are a sequence above all. But they can be enjoyed singly, too.
More Hap
A Quiet Fourth
Night-piece
This previously unpublished poem was written around the time of In Plain Air.
Lion Camp
Water Among the Stones (1987) is a perfect little book, dedicated to John Wilson, Stephens’s former student and colleague. Matilija Creek, where these poems are set, is the headwaters of the Ventura River.
To My Matilija
Catch and Release
John’s Lizard
Yucca whipplei
and a low wind …
Goodbye Matilija (1992), dedicated to Robyn Bell, also a former student and colleague, is a companion to Water Among the Stones. The following poem is the longest of this sampler; it’s a culmination of Stephens’s thinking about what we are doing here.
Dream Vision
Stubble Burning (1988), a chapbook, includes a number of remarkable poems, some of which reappeared in The White Boat and Away from the Road.
Old Man Afraid
The Morning of Glenn Gould’s Funeral
Reading The White Boat (1995) is like sipping an old, rare, well-kept wine.
An early spring day . . .
Manzana Cow and Dragonflies
Pine Mountain
Away from the Road (1998) is Stephens’s final book. The tone is elegiac, the verses expert.
Fragment on a Theme by Ausonius
Gerontic
For a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
Reflecting Pool
Finally, a poem written after Away from the Road, perhaps the last Stephens wrote. It is a tribute to his wife Fran. Without her, none of this was possible.
A Portrait