Two poems by Richard C. Bower

Beauty Is Everywhere

Beauty is everywhere

Take a look outside

It’s in the dreams that build tonight

It’s in its teeth that mark the sky

There’s beauty in a tear

It’s in the path that led you here

It’s in a smile that spills out

To anyone who will listen

Beauty is here

I’ve seen it

It’s in the thread of a dress

It’s in a lock of golden hair

It’s in a drunkard’s eye

On a rainy night

Chasing dreams

Across the sky

As one stands

Singing in the rain

Beauty is here

Beauty is everywhere

......

I Write As I Cry

Death brings me here

A feeling of isolation

Of grief and dependent emotion

All this uncertainty, makes losing a parent extremely bewildering

My mother was a nurse

My father, myself, and my sister

Never expected

To be making her comfortable on a pressure-free mattress

That then would become her deathbed

I remember it clearly

Only months before

And having received the call to come home quickly

I write

As I cry

I recall the days before she died

In a heart-rendering conversation

Holding my hand, my Mum said how she wanted to see me thrive

Now I sit here, without her, and I wonder

How I’ve coped through all of this time?

My life is unstable

With a lack of direction I feel like a failure

In a landscape of loss uncertainty heightens

Not knowing where I’m going or who I am

The death of one’s mother is a death out of time

Feeling robbed of the future, in which she was mine

All the images I had of my life that included my Mum

When I married, had children - all of these now are gone

The experience of loss

Cuts straight to the deep and meaningful

Exacerbating pain

But writing this is helpful

Providing therapy

In which I’m uplifted, affirmed, recognised, and heard

Connecting and helping other people

I wipe a tear from my eye

Acknowledging and dealing with loss

Is seen as brave and courageous

And I’m deemed an inspiration

But I don’t see it like that

Deep down I just want Mum back

And in the void left by that impossibility

I think of my Mum

Immensely beautiful, breathtakingly

Exquisitely human

And in this way we grow; together

And my Mum is never forgotten

Biography

Richard C. Bower is a British poet, essayist, and Cultural Ambassador whose work examines the intersections of philosophy, literature, and contemporary spiritual thought.

Holding a BSc in Philosophy & Social Sciences and an MSc in Journalism, his writing is informed by rigorous socio-cultural analysis and narrative precision. Recently granted

doctoral recognition for his sustained contribution to literature, Bower serves as a

UNESCO-recognized Poet Laureate and a member of the Authors’ Club. His published

collections, including Pleasures In The Pathless Woods (2023) and Introspective Soliloquies

(2025), explore themes of moral consciousness and the reclamation of attentiveness in an age of distraction.

Bower’s work has garnered significant international academic attention, particularly within the context of world translations and comparative literature. His poetry has been translated into Bengali and frequently appears in scholarly discussions alongside the works of Rabindranath Tagore. In 2023, he was invited to address scholars at Visva-Bharati University - founded by Tagore - on the role of the poet in modern society. By positioning poetry as a civic instrument and ethical practice, Bower continues to contribute to global dialogues regarding literary humanism and the re- enchantment of cultural narratives.