The Human Core by Wade Stevenson

In The Human Core, Wade Stevenson writes from the shifting edge of experience, where time slips, memory reshapes itself, and each moment gives way to the next. These poems move between the intimate and the infinite, asking what it means to live, to love, and to endure in a world that never stands still.

From the quiet astonishment of a star-filled sky to the charged immediacy of the body, from the solitude of thought to the shared pulse of connection, Stevenson explores the fragile, persistent energy at the center of human life. Love, loss, desire, and reflection all gather here, woven into a voice that is both searching and sure.

At once philosophical and deeply felt, The Human Core invites readers to pause inside the motion of their own lives, to consider the fleeting beauty of each moment, and the unseen threads that bind them together.

This is a book about becoming, about remembering, and about the strange, vital force that keeps us moving forward, moment to moment, toward what comes next.


Asking the unanswerable questions that humans have been asking for millennia, Stevenson gives them a poignant twist that underscores their universality while also making them distinctly his own. And though he’s not afraid to look directly at the tragedy and futility that constantly batter the contemporary world, he retains a faith in human resilience and our capacity for wonder and for love—ultimately, a glowing and uplifting book. 

—Cole Swensen 


The Human Core by Wade Stevenson contemplates “[h]ow to go/ From the stasis of everyday being/ To the promised / Forward movement/ Of pure becoming.” The poet tells us (and himself): “Listen to [the words] first, sound before meaning/ (As existence precedes essence).” The essence of Stevenson’s poem is a “solitary flute, wanting nothing more/ Than to leave a dying, innocent echo/ In the troubled, polluted air” after the War, in the waiting room, under the star-filled sky, as he years for the last loving lament of his lost Amor. Stevenson breathes courage for us to “make/ The moment you will have just lived / A miraculous now.” The magic lies therein, in that belief that we share in that desire to be more than we can be. 

—Tiffany Troy, author of Dominus


"The word core comes down to us from two Latin words--cor (heart) and corpus (body). In these new poems, Wade Stevenson gives ample, tireless witness to the heart's infinite embodiments from moment to moment and from love to love. The Human Core brings new dignity and new durations to memory, to poignancy, and to time itself. This is a tender and companionable collection."

—Donald Revell


The poems in Wade Stevenson’s The Human Core operate on a poetics of great generosity. With graceful, open questions, Stevenson gently invites us to consider what it means to live and to live well, to love and to let love transform you. These elegant, meditative poems never force an answer on the reader—or on questions better left as questions, their inflection shifting as one lives and lives on. Instead, Stevenson’s work delights in wonder, in this world where every moment is “an iridescence in the mind,” “a miraculous now.”

—Emma Bolden, author of The Tiger and the Cage


Wade Stevenson is a singular voice in contemporary poetry. Effortlessly blending the lyric with philosophy and autobiography, his poems showcase a truly cosmopolitan sensibility and a refined, elegantly understated approach to writerly craft. THE HUMAN CORE is the culmination of a fascinating, accomplished life in the arts and letters. Bravo!

—Kristina Marie Darling, Fulbright Scholar and author of Daylight Has Already Come  



Wade Stevenson was born in NYC in 1945. Educated at St. Paul’s School, he studied in Paris, and has travelled extensively throughout Asia. His first book, ICE CREAM PARLORS IN ASIA, was published in 1969, thanks to John Ashbery. BEDS (McCall Publishing Co.) became a poetry best seller. His memoir ONE TIME IN PARIS and his novel THE ELECTRIC AFFINITIES both received critical acclaim. He has published more than a dozen poetry books, including SONGS OF THE SUN AMOR, LOVE AT THE END, and IN THE COUNTRY OF THE PEREGRINE.



Book Information:

· Paperback: 66 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-542-7

$18