Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary

Of Stephen’s death in a car crash

He was killed along with the driver of a London taxi

On the evening of the 17th September 1973

In Castle Road Ealing West London

Reports indicate that the driver lost control at high speed

Due to a mechanical failure that caused his vehicle to crash into a brick wall

Stephen died immediately of a severe head trauma

And the driver Tony Nash died later that evening

The world of poetry was shaken to the core by Stephen’s untimely death

He had only just turned nineteen and in his short life had published two books

The Chrysalis Amongst the Waves in 1971 and Perfect Form in 1973

Both books were well received and Stephen was predicted to have a bright future

A posthumous collection of poems Festival was published in 1975

Followed by Paint in 1980 and The Lighthouse in 1995

I was trusted by his family to be the guardian of his unpublished poems

And to release them as I saw fit mainly to be published in literary journals

This I have done with a great pleasure for the last thirty-three years

My family and friends met last night and we toasted Stephen’s life

I later announced that I would be releasing four more unpublished poems

To the Searchlight magazine for publication in their January 2024 edition

Stephen Masefield 29th August 1954 – 17th September 1973