There Are No ‘Cents’ in Pretense

Just before midnight, I wandered through Nancy’s whimsical corner of The Elephant’s Trunk, where her poetic mischief nudged me over the fence of common sense. In that soft hour, a playful spark took hold — and this anecdotal poem tumbled out as my midnight excuse.
For Nancy >> Poet’s Excuse – The Elephant’s Trunk



And because midnight rarely behaves itself, here’s Nick Cave’s “Night Raid” slipping in with its dark velvet mood before the poem leaps the fence again.






There Are No ‘Cents’ in Pretense


None of it needs to make sense
no matter present tense
or past tense

Your quill has a license
to leap the pretense fence —
forget about common sense

And write delicious nonsense
in future tense
with imaginative effulgence





And to round out this midnight ramble, here’s the song I shared with Nancy — Leonard Cohen’s wonderfully unusual “Ballad of the Absent Mare,” a wandering little masterpiece that trots alongside any poet willing to leap the fence of pretense.




Ivor Steven ©  August 2026

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ivor20

G'day, and welcome to my blog site. My name is Ivor Steven, I live in Geelong, Australia. I'm an ex-industrial chemist, and a retired plumber, and a former Carer of my wife(Carole), for 30 years, who suffered from severe MS. I Write poetry about those personal thoughts, throughout and beyond my life as a Carer. I've been blogging for over 2 years, and writing poems for 19 years. Of course a lot of my poems are about my favourite subject Carole, but since I've been blogging my writings have become quite varied, humourous, mystical, observational, and even a few monster/horror poems.

24 thoughts on “There Are No ‘Cents’ in Pretense”

  1. To be given a nod of poetic appreciation by you, my dear friend, is like The Maestro, Leonard Cohen himself, choosing to sing a new, unknown song composed by someone else. It’s a great honor and a thrill. Thank you for choosing my poem, dear poet. 🥰🎶📝💙😍

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  2. Sending these lines back to you and appreciation.
    “Your quill has a license
    to leap the pretense fence”
    Don’t wait for someone else’s permission

    Glad to see you still shining your light.❤️

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  5. Sometimes, the nonsense of this world, is, too, hard to, understand, that’s why we use, gibberish, words that don’t make sense to, anyone else, to, make sense of, what’s, happened around us, it’s the only way we know of, how to, cope…

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