Ivor.Plumber/Poet

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

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.

It Was Time To Leave (Revised)

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

Ivor Steven (c) September 2025

Calico Curtains (a Senryu)

Featured Image Above: A veiled moon, a steady pulse — answering Susi’s quiet reflection.’

Thank you to Susi; her article, “Calm”, inspired my Senryu >> Calm – I Write Her

Calico Curtains
(a Senryu)

When the lights are dim
Behind life’s silent curtain
The show carries on

‘Behind the silent curtain, the world still trembles — Cohen answers where my haiku whispers.’

Ivor Steven © March 2026

My Courtyard’s Sunflowers

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Colour Challenge for March is Yellow. To visit their fabulous site, please click >> Here.

My Courtyard’s Sunflowers

The sunflowers sway and say hello
Always happy and politely mellow
And never ever bellow
Like that orange badfellow
They are my garden’s yellow-cello’s

Ivor Steven © March 2026

Gulls Over Dover

Featured Image Above: A bleak sky, fleeing wings, and a world on edge—echoed in the voice of “Iron Sky.”

A thank you to Derrick for inspiring the theme of this poem, even though I didn’t use his photo this time. His article nudged me to write.
>> Confusion About The Month – derrickjknight

Gulls Over Dover

The sky turns a hessian dull
as our silly world spins towards
another war zone cull.

The frightened gulls
of Dover flee north to Hull,
too wary of looking backwards,
haunted by humanity’s disparities

Ivor Steven © March 2026

Throwback Friday, Cascading Snowflakes (an Epigram)

Featured Image by Julius H. from Pixabay (From Eugi’s Prompt Site)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in June 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the second poem in the Epigram section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.

Throwing back to a poem that reminded me how even small things, like snowflakes, can ease old heartaches.

Cascading Snowflakes (an Epigram)

With every breath we take
After our weary eyes awake
The existence of daybreak
Appeases our heartaches
As cascading, soft snowflakes
Gently flow over our old keepsakes

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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 © March 2026

Full Moon Rising

In the hush of a calm bay, the moon lifts above the palms as if ready to whisper its small truth to the night.

Full Moon Rising

There is a hush in the air
Below the full moon’s stare
Silence is golden
Eveningtide unfolding
The bay is dead calm
As the moon glares
Through Rippleside’s palms

“Why look at me
I’m only a tiny spirit
in the universe’s eternal sea.“

“Scan beyond your sandy quay
to find your celestial key.”

Ivor Steven © March 2026

Nature’s Honest Sky (a Tanka)

Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me.
Where the day opens its wings to truth

Nature’s Honest Sky (a Tanka)

Why retire your wings
When you’re still able to fly
Through the soft white clouds
There in nature’s azure sky
Where the air always feels true

Let this song drift beneath the wings of the poem — a soft score for nature’s honest sky.’

Ivor Steven © March 2026

When Three Times Three Equalled Minus Three

Featured Image Above: A painting of ‘Three Flowers’, by Carole Steven.

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

“Three times, ‘Once Upon a Time” has been difficult to redefine …“

Tullawalla:

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

Ivor Steven © March 2026

This week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine features my new poem, “Dawn’s Symphony of Light.”

Featured Image Above: The Colour of the Dawn Sky Above the Western Horizon

Hello, dear readers and followers. I contribute to Coffee House Writers magazine (USA) every second week, and I’m delighted to share that my latest poem, “Dawn’s Symphony of Light (a Tanka),” appears in the new issue. You can read it by following the link below.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/dawns-symphony-of-light/

Yesterday’s sky felt like it was tuning itself for morning — colours rising, shadows softening, the world humming awake. Today, this Tanka arrived, and Osibisa’s ‘The Dawn’ felt like the perfect companion.”

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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.

Under the Leaking Astrodome

Rain still falling, sun breaking through, and the sky opening into two bright arcs. A moment too rare to ignore — and one that followed me into my dreams

Under the Leaking Astrodome

Despite the steamy summer rain,
Nature beckoned me to keep walking.
The late afternoon’s overcast sky
Was her theatre’s silver screen.

Within the leaking astrodome,
I witnessed a grand mystical show.
Sunbeams were breaking clear
From behind the shrouding clouds,
And a long, majestic rainbow arch –
not just one bright rainbow ribbon,
but a magical double rainbow.

How serendipitously fortunate was I,
even if I was soaked to the bone.
Ancient mythologies say that such rare revelations,
whisper of storms clearing within the spirit.

Who Shines On Me?

Feature Image Above: Created by Copilot and me
The moon rises quietly, guiding my cross-eyed downside away from the world’s wide landslide.

Who Shines On Me?

Who is he, who is she,
who shines on me
so forlornly?

There, from the other side
of the sky’s great divide,
where eveningtide
cannot be denied.

Then the twilight moon guided
my cross-eyed downside
away from the world’s wide
and worsening landslide.

For the quiet places where the moon lifts us beyond what we think we see.