Absence Presence

A life in verse.

This posthumously compiled collection comprises the life's work of poet Stephen McKean. Written over a thirty-year span, his poems draw on a wide range of sources - from personal memory to nature, art, sports, and politics. They are love poems and dedications, prayers and confessions - an attempt to render an account of his impressions to a sometimes absent seeming listener or even deity. The act of writing poetry he considers "a ritual of communion" - communion being more than just remembrance, but an entering into the mystery.


Stephen McKean was a poet, journalist, traveler, and teacher who, at his early passing at the age of 47, left behind over 300 poems. His poetry was published in ellipsis...literature and art, South Ash Press, Third Wednesday, among others. He also wrote for The Athens (Ohio) News, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and various Ohio University publications. In 2006, he was a co-winner of the Ellipsis Prize for Poetry from Ellipsis Magazine. A Cincinnati native, he lived, wrote, and studied in Berkeley, London, Paris, Dublin, Cape Town, and Athens, Ohio. He passed away on June 1, 2021, leaving behind a generous gift of philanthropy to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and The Nelsonville Music Festival of Southeast Ohio, along with the gift of his poems.