Throwback Friday, It Was Time To Leave

Cousin Lynn and Robin with Mungo and Kelly

Cousin Maureen and doggies Z-Z and Co-Co

Cousin Penny, and then Dave, Penny, and Ivor

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Here I am on a Jet Plane, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Therefore today’s Throwback Friday poem is a very appropriate finale piece, to coincide with my amazing adventures in Canada over the past 21 days.

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It Was Time To Leave (Revised)

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It’s time to tidy up my mess
Clean up the room and get dressed
It’s time to pack my suitcase
Fill the travel bag and vacate this place
It’s time to put on my famous rocker shoes
And walk away from this dream come true
It’s time to say heartfelt goodbyes
To these wonderful Canadian guys
It’s time for final hugs and kisses
Sad farewells and best wishes
It’s time for my usual emotional tears
Separate myself from these every day cheers
It’s time to flyaway from a land of berries and fairies
Leave this magical world of faraway families
It’s time to say a million thank you’s
For making my stay a Really Real great do
It’s time for me to travel back home
With glorious memories of this magical Astrodome

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Ivor Steven (c) September 2025

Throwback Friday, A Blade of Light

Please note the featured photo and attached photos above are taken from Street Art in the Geelong CBD

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in January 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Fantasy section of Chapter 9, Humour, Fantasy, and Fairyland: Timeless





A Blade of Light


Far beyond my darkest night
Clambering out of purgatory’s deepest void
I grasp onto a single blade of light
On the edge of my soulless asteroid
Who rescues me from Armageddon’s endless fight

Awaking in a pool of sweat, just after midnight
This meaningless nightmare gave me a hellish fright






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Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)



Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.


Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Creative Geelong Market Day, This Saturday, January 17th

It’s Market Day this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* Our popular monthly markets are all undercover at Centrepoint Arcade on the third Saturday of every month.
* They feature art, unique goods from local makers, second-hand goods, plants, books, and more.
* There are also open art studios, Yesterday Vintage, Untether Gallery, HBT Collectables, and the May’d Shop. 

All at, Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
From 11 am to 3 pm

And I’ll be there with ‘Frankie’ and my “New Bookstall Set-up“









Ivor Steven (c) Jan 2026

On the Edge of Finality


A small reflection on the strange path from understanding to uncertainty, and the fragile line between what feels real and what feels lost.



On the Edge of Finality


Physically,
and enigmatically,
Scaling life’s realities
has critically
reached obscurity.

Combined with humanity’s
vanity, inanity, and insanity
and lack of morality –
brutally –
finality
is not an impossibility.







Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

An Anti-depressant Pill, or, Theo’s First Tomato


Where Theo’s tiny tomato and shy seedlings work their quiet miracles… with one curious assistant nearby.


An Anti-depressant Pill, or, Theo’s First Tomato


Lately, my mind has been wandering,
and my tired old quill is meandering
between the lines of my poignant writings.
I’ve been anxiously worrying
about our weary, war-torn world.

In the morning, I gave my ink well
an anti-depressant pill.
The good Doctor Who had prescribed
a relaxing dose of courtyard gardening.

The effervescent tonic worked miracles.
Today, Theo* has produced his first baby tomato,
and my recently planted sunflower seeds
have sprouted into healthy little seedlings.
And the courtyard whispered,
‘There you are… stay awhile.’



*Theo the Tomato bush, who started his miraculous journey late in May, the beginning of our winter.







Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Unstable Weather


“Arrival of the Birds” by The Cinematic Orchestra felt like the natural companion — a quiet swell of hope beneath the magpies’ wings.


Unstable Weather

Behind closed doors,
Below the first floor,
Far beyond braided Russia leather,
They shelter from the unstable weather.

Nature’s hierarchy walks together –
Black and white birds of a feather –
And untethered, they will fly forever,
Above the world’s war-weary heather.








Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Why Worry?



Gigi’s poem >> https://gigisrantsandraves.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/have-you-noticed , opened a familiar ache — the sense of being small inside a vast, grinding system. This poem rose from that feeling, with Lisa O’Neill’s “Rock The Machine” humming at its edges.


Why Worry?



Government – Corporate piracy –
Rife everywhere in our binary society.
Ironically, our privacy is *actively*
The policy of every dynasty’s refinery.
Corruption: slavery, bribery, impiety.
And privately, I worry about the impropriety,
The calamity’s spidery finality.









Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Confetti Clouds

Featured Image Above: Daylight moon, slipping through confetti clouds — a silent witness to the world’s warring manoeuvrers, drifting apart.





Confetti Clouds


I’m slip-sliding downward
from behind the morning clouds –
or are they earth’s mourning shrouds,
discarded by the world’s warlords
then shredded into propaganda streamers,
to deceive all the invisible dreamers?

I am an unbiased, timeless observer
who has witnessed every violent crowd’s
mismanaged, murderous manoeuvre.






Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Upbeat in the Heat


A quiet day indoors — Frankie dozing, Lisa O’Neill singing, and words drifting through the heat.



Upbeat in the Heat


A hot north wind is scorching everything.
The sun is blazing;
inside, we are hiding.
Frankie is sleeping,
And I am writing.
while listening
To Lisa O’Neill Singing
and pondering
how amazing
that her lyrics are always resonating
with the drift of my own wanderings.



“Birdy From Another Realm” Enlightens me with colours; his song is like no other.

Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Throwback Friday, Hotter Than Helios

Featured Image Above: From Bing Images, numrush.nl


Here in Geelong, we are going through a warm/hot spell, and this is a poem that I wrote in January 2019, so appropriately, the poem gets replayed today.


Hotter Than Helios

Today is hotter than hot
This town’s a living melting pot
You could fry an egg without a cooktop
I won’t be taking Yorkie for a trot
My body’s losing the plot
Waiting for my aorta’s mystery clots

My writing’s burnt out, on Helios hill
Leaving an arid inkwell, holding a dry quill
Despite the heat, I’ll do an exercise session. It’s my will
To continue with this daily drill
No excuses, to lose sight of spring’s daffodil
Working out, like I’m an old grinding flour mill

Even if I’m over-baked, like Sunday’s hot roast
For her, I’ll take life’s chances to the utmost










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Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)



Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.


Ivor Steven ©  January 2026