Welcome to the Blog

Son of Stephen is an old idea.  In 1994, Doctor Stephen Gardner had me in his poetry class.  The first half of the class was filled with many students writing poetry, including myself, followed by a large portfolio project.  During this time, myself and many other students were mentored by one of the most caring and correct professors to teach.  His own style of proper teaching, and guidance guided more than a number of people into the realm of poetry and writing, and pushed us to do the best we could.  I was lucky at this time to have been in a class with such talented individuals as John Lowery and Monica Garvin Dees.  Jannette Giles Hypes was also in my class, and my connection to Stephen Gardner  strengthened my connection to many other students, including Clay Morton and many other people.

There was an unspoken connection between writing students, and we celebrated each other and felt proud to have been taught by the professors of USC-Aiken.

After leaving the University of South Carolina at Aiken, I ventured forward into the world of Academia, where I went to graduate school.

Back home Stephen Gardner continued what he'd always done, mentor, guide and teach aspiring students and from that teaching, he inspired so many students to strive for excellence.

Son of Stephen, or maybe I should say, Sons and Daughters of Stephen exists to pay homage and honor Stephen Gardner, who taught us so much beyond being simply a teacher.  He was like a father to so many.

These blog posts highlight through poetry, (Some of Stephen's own and some inspired by Stephen), essay and visuals the skill that Stephen Gardner mentored in people.

I welcome any student of Stephen's to submit something personal to this blog, so Stephen's legacy and family live on.

Contributions
Jannette Giles's "Late June."

Jannette Giles's " "Raking."

James Enelow's "Darkness into Light: An Introduction to  Why He Doesn't Sleep."
James's intro complete with poem links to the Stephen Gardners poems that inspired and the poems written in homage to Stephen's original work.

James Enelow's "For Doctor Stephen Gardner Who loved His Students."

Contributors

Late June (Poems for Stephen Gardner)

Late June

For Stephen L. Gardner

More than seven months since I lifted your hand

from the hospital bed, my thumb petting its warm

dry back, rougher than imagined, trying to coax

out the coma through the pores, summer arrived:

heat before the Solstice, pouring in on the ferns,

exploding the lilies, open-mouths of spotted petals,

stamen reddish brown as the psoriasis on your skin.

Because there is no gravesite to visit, headstone

to trace with fingers pressed in to carved out words,

I memorialize you often and in strange places: once,

my tires crunched an ice cream cone, sweet and brittle

on asphalt. I imagined ashes stuck in tire tread, traveling.

At night, curled in the hospital recliner, your breath

too rhythmic to be natural, I searched for the silence

I could sleep in. Some moments you were present

as someone resting; in others, the room was empty

of you: I questioned your consciousness, how much

you were seeing, hearing of this room full of wife,

mother, friends, me—somewhere between student

and daughter, never one and not the other.

In your last days I wondered if I was doing it right,

questioned the proper vigils to take: hand holding,

consoling, praying, reading Roethke—sure familiar

vibrations of words would reach, maybe even wake,

you. When they didn’t, I went back to rubbing, this time

the thumbs, letting gravity and the natural bend

of your fingers hold my hand in return.

Now, when June turns to July and fireflies are lazy,

dotting the shadowy undersides of maple leaves,

I return to writing poems. It is what you taught me.

It keeps you close. Syllables bloom into stanzas,

wrap the page in pigment and ash.

Contributors

Jannette Hypes is a graduate of USC-Aiken where she studied poetry and life with Dr. Stephen Gardner who later became her stepfather by some strange and wonderful twist of fate. Although a South Carolina native, she became an East Tennessean in 1998. Her poetry has appeared in Breathing the Same Air: An East Tennessee Anthology (Celtic Cat Publishing, 2001); The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume I: South Carolina (Texas Review, 2007); Outscapes: Writings on Fences and Frontiers (Knoxville Writers’ Guild, 2008); The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume III: Contemporary Appalachia (Texas Review, 2011); and most recently The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI: Tennessee (Texas Review Press, 2013).

Tribute Poems for Stephen Gardner

Raking

For Stephen L. Gardner

To clear this land could take months.
Readying for winter, so leaves won’t freeze

then mold in the thaw of spring, I row

through this backyard pushing piles

large as my car street-side. Red-browns

on top, wet-black underneath, heavier

than they ought to be. Trees are empty,

even of birds. Shoulders tighten, burn;

palms tingle in spots sure to whiten, peel,

leave skin rich-pink and ripe to air like grass

pale beneath leaves: newborn and dying

together. In this place, this half-worked

yard of bare oak and splaying dogwood,  

everything speaks your distant and holy

language: glass chimes clink, catch sun,

dazzle bark with bending light. A ribbon

of blackbirds finds wind, glides away.

by Jannette Giles