Tag: poem

  • You Are Enough

    Not the loudest,not the first to arriveor last to leave.You are the steady warmthbetween seasons,the breath that doesn’t need to be noticedto keep the body whole. You are the chair pulled close,the cup filled without asking,the hand that doesn’t flinch. You carry no banners.You don’t demand. And still,you hold up the skyfor someone. That is…

  • All the Birds are Gone

    The sky doesn’t hum like it used to.We traded songsfor signal towersand forgot the soundof wings over wheat. Benches sit emptyin parks built for someone else’s childhood.Swings move only with the wind now,no laughter to push them. We speak in pingsand half-hearted hearts,thumb-pressed loveand silence that scrolls onlonger than grief. We taught our childrento fear…

  • Shaping a Poem

    It’s a quiet thing, a word foundin the stillness of dawnwhile dreamers slumberand the new moon succumbsto day. A fading thought,soft intake of breathin the long pause between sleep and wake.Sometimes it’s hopeenduring wildfire, flood,or the dusts of time.Maybe dinosaur bones,a lost tomb, or scarecrowsguarding lavender fields. Perhaps a dew-drizzledcobweb, a jonquil, cloudor song. Most…

  • Enough

    I don’t need the crowdor the chorus—just one. One pair of eyesthat doesn’t flinchat the worst of me.One heartthat nodsat my silenceand still hears it all. If I am knownby even one soulwithout needing to explain, that is enough.That is everything. Ryan Stone

  • Red Shack Triptych

    I. Red Shack, White Silence (His Voice — Then) We climbed past where the trees give up,boots sinking through hush and drift,wind at our backs like a warningwe chose not to hear.The red shack waited—tilted, rust-kissed,half-swallowed by snow. Inside,a match struck light against the cold.One flame,then another,until the dark softenedjust enough to hold us. There…

  • Daughter of the Plains

    Daughter of the Plains

    Ochre soaked skies, sunrise woke her – blue grass seas lilt behind stained glass at dawn. On morning’s grace she’s borne. Ryan Stone

  • Falling Up

    Falling Up

    You will never fall in love with me. Don’t try to convince me That I will always wait for you. If you really look, you’ll see I’m not here for the long haul Don’t imagine You give me reason to stay. When things get hard I’ll leave – Don’t imagine I’m not like the others,…

  • If I Could Write

    If I could writethe best poem ever written,it wouldn’t be carved in stoneor read aloud to thunder. It would be quiet—just your namefolded into a lineonly you would notice. It would knowhow your hands shookthe day you held someonewho didn’t stay,how you once criedinto the collar of your coatso no one would see. It would…

  • Blacktop & Burn Marks

    We hit the highwaylike it owed us something—two beers deep,one taillight out,her boots on the dashand my name on her lipslike a dare. Pickup rattledwith the sound of bad wiringand worse music.She tuned the radioby punching it,and it worked. She lit a jointoff the cigarette lighter,passed it without looking.Said,“If we crash,don’t bother calling my mother.”…

  • In the Shade of the Tree Ferns

    No path here.Just damp earth,moss on stone,and the slow, deliberate hushof growing things. Tree ferns arc overhead,fronds wide as arms,filtering lightinto something sacred. I brought my sons here,when their legs were smalland full of mud.They squatted in the black soil,drew patterns with sticks,found joyin a single wriggling earthworm. The ferns, the filtered light—none of it…