The winter sun sets
Over my oldest day
I tick off another year
My sister reminds me
“Twenty years to go
to equal Dad’s Ninety-one”
“Is that achievable?”
I ask myself
“No harm in trying”
I tell myself
Carole’s Dad also reached Ninety-One
This is my marathon’s goal
“To walk around the moon
on my way to touching the stars”
Ivor Steven (c) July 20th 2022
I went to a friend’s funeral yesterday afternoon, he was Seventy-one too, and a few weeks ago I went to see him in hospital after he had suffered a bad stroke … He was home alone, and they found him on the floor 3 days after he had the stroke … We went to school together 55 years ago … Last night I was sad and alone with my furry friend Frankie … Today is my 71st birthday, and I am emotionally appreciating life, after suffering 3 strokes of my own in recent times …
Attacked below is a new song by Loner Deer, ‘Leather Hat’ and his lyrics, seem to capture the feelings of my mood and thoughts today.
Loner Deer. ‘Leather Hat’, Lyrics
Today, no one came in my team
But I don’t wanna be the one
Who got no friends, no buddies in the house
But it’s not a big deal ’cause I never be alone
Under my Leather Hat, under my leather hat
This morning I want to play, but Momma said “no”
I have to clean my room but I just wanna be outside
Hang out with my friends, but I don’t have many plans
So, I’m just waiting in my bed and looking on the wall
At my leather hat, at my leather hat
Give me trust and give me wings, I guess some people want it
But I ain’t looking for the fame, I don’t forget where I come from
When Grandpa drives me through the fields
He tells me what I have to think about
That no one tells me what to do
I’m rich, I’m strong, I’m feeling good
Under my leather hat, under my leather hat
Give me trust and give me wings, I guess some people want it
But I ain’t looking for the fame, I don’t forget where I come from
Today, no one came in my team
But I don’t wanna be the one
Who got no friends, no buddies in the house
But it’s not a big deal ’cause I never be alone
Under my Leather Hat, under my leather hat
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
Hello dear readers and followers, I am pleased to announce that I have managed to produce my “Twenty Nineth Tullawalla” Booklet … For new readers that don’t know about these booklets, they are basically the reason why I write poetry. I produce these ‘home-printed’ booklets for the sole purpose of raising funds for my favourite charity organisation, the MS Society, in Australia via the MS Charity Shop here in Geelong. And actually all money’s I receive for any of my poetry .via, submissions, I donate to the MS Society…. I’m proud to announce, that the sale of my “Tullawalla Booklets”, have now gone pass $1500.00, … to all the lovely readers, who have donated, to help achieve such a wonderful amount, a big heartfelt thank you, from “us” and the MS Society … …..Incredibly, there is now a total of “1255 poems”, Yep, well over “A Thousand Poems” in my collection/series of “29” Tullawalla Booklets. After 3 months, this booklet is finally completed, and ready for sale now !! As always, they are available for purchase, either as a hard copy ‘Booklet’, or a PDF format….. All proceeds go to the MS Charity Shop, here in Geelong West….. Please contact me here through my website page and I can chat to you about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla, Today, Beside the Sea”… And here is the link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com
Today, Beside the Sea
After I left the fish tank
I lived on a nearby riverbank
Close to the connected sea
I would look beyond the ocean
Out to the dark blue horizon
As far as the eye could see
That was the ocean
That was our river
And now her river has been set free
An ebb tide that flows through me
Today beside the sea
I wait here
For tomorrow’s horizon
To set me free
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
A nightmarish hypothetical poem and some of the words are from comments I made on Bart’s and Sadje’s recent posts .. > https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2022/07/15/fraiku-first-lights/
.. > https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/07/13/one-liner-strength/
Featured Image: Photo from the JWST
Towards the Dark (my Nightmare)
One day soon
After mining the earth dry
There will no more rubies
No more diamonds in the sky
Will our silver spoons
Ever stop digging
Towards the dark side of our moon
Tonight, we do not need
Our world to be darker
We can learn to survive
When life teaches us
The value of being alive
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
Dear readers and followers, here’s a great opportunity for your writings to be read by other writers, and also to find and meet other writers. You are very welcome to participate, come along and visit our writer friendly site…..by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article >>
View Original Post…
Welcome toPromote Yourself Monday. All Go Dog Go Cafe community members are invited to postonelink to one specific piece of their writing (600 words or less please!) they have published on their blog, Facebook page, or Instagram feed into the comments section below.
If you post a link, be sure to read some of the other great writing people have linked to.
The wind blows strong though Xavier Rudd’s tenth album. It’s a recurring image that speaks of wide-open space and the awesome natural elements that shape it: a force far greater than us, but ours to harness if we take the time to learn, reflect and respect its ways.
“It hit me last year when I started to write Stoney Creek,” the Australian roots journeyman says of the album’s first, exhilarating single: a rolling acoustic balm of a song that finds refuge in the simple blessings of rest, companionship and belonging in a world gone crazy.
“We were on a trip north to the Cape and the wind was blowing too hard to take the tinnie out to the island… As I contemplated everything in my life and what was happening in the world there was literally a strong southeaster blowing, all the time. It felt like a wind of change, literally, in so many ways.”
The wide-open space he’d found himself in — the great COVID silence — was both beyond his control and curiously in-sync. The break accelerated a return to the solo mode of creation that first led the barefoot multi-instrumentalist on his phenomenal journey.
“Very excited to get out on the road and share this new record and live show that I’ve been working on. Australia first and then back out in the big wide world, the world needs music and I’m ready to share.”
This Article/Promotion: By “The Geelong Arts Center”
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
Here I am presenting my 2nd ‘Villanelle’ poem for the week, but the one is from 4 years ago
This Villanelle is from July 2018, was adapted from my 2011 poem “This Lost Shadow”, which I reposted on my site during the week >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2022/07/13/this-lost-shadow-a-10-year-celebration/
I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree
Why am I so sleepy, am I ageing too quickly
I’m writing a book for a heart and soul gone cold
I’m so physically worn and mentally at sea
Why am I so anxious and lonely
I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree
I’m writing this song about my return to the fold
Why am I so sore, have I lost my plea
I’m writing a book for a heart and soul gone cold
I’m a furnace log, burning up with glee
I’m a sinking ship, all about to flee
I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree
I’m an overburdened camel, not to be told
I’m…
View original post 172 more words
With thank thanks to Colleen Brown and her inspiring article >>
https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2022/07/11/ah-the-night/
Night Falls (a Haiku)
Daytime eyes do tire
Upon the land, night did fall
On the dreams of all
Ivor Steven © July 2022
The Weekly Prompts, Wednesday Challenge is: OUTDOOR FUN. Please go over and visit their fabulous by clicking >> Here . and the below Tanka, is my response to their prompt ..
Nature’s Theatre (a Tanka)
The late winter sun
Peaks through a curtain of cloud
That flat silver screen
Becomes nature’s theatre
Where true rainbow films are fun
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
Ten years ago my poem ‘This Lost Shadow‘ was accepted and published in the Literary Anthology, “Melpomene” . The poem was the first piece of mine to appear in a Published Book, and I was exceptionally proud to have my name in the authors list, along side the famous poets, Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and Paul Verlaine … Below, I have scanned my poem ‘This Lost Shadow’ directly from my copy of the book.
Featured Photo Above: Taken by Derrick Knight > derrickjknight – Ramblings
Gwendolyn Taunton (Editor)
Melpomene is a collection of poetry, prose and short fiction named after the Greek Muse of Tragedy. The central theme of the anthology is the beauty found in sorrow and the darker sides of human nature, drawing on literary traditions such as the ‘Damned Poets’, the Decadent Movement, Symbolism/Surrealism and the Fin de si cle. Melpomene is broken into four sections: Liber Veneficium (Book of Magic), Liber Maeroris (Book of Sorrow), Liber Fatum (Book of Fate), and Liber Mortuorum (Book of Death). Each section contains both new and classic literature dealing with these themes. Authors in this volume include Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Taunton, Azsacra Zarathustra, Math Jones, Bernardo Sena, J. Karl Bogartte, C. B. Liddell, James WF Roberts, Christopher Pankhurst, H. A. Cledones, Tamas Nagyatadi Horvath, L. Alexander Carle, Bill Noble, Marg Howlet, Ivor Steven and Gene Banyard. Containing works both old and new, Melpomene offers a prime selection of works on the melancholic side of existence, the transformational beauty of the esoteric, occult secrets hidden in verse, sorrow, doom and the inevitable grasp of death. Melpomene will haunt the reader with a dark and unearthly beauty that is both forbidden and forlorn…
Ivor Steven (c) July 2022
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 