Author: 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.

Swans Gliding By

The weekend monthly Colour Challenge, at Weekly Prompts is: Blues! Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here … My poem below mentions ‘Blue’




Swans Gliding By




The showy morning clouds

Are my gregarious pantomime


Their grey fluffy curves

Dance across the sky’s blue stage

Like Ballerina Swans

Gracefully gliding by








Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Lines To Nowhere, is up at Spillwords Magazine

I am ecstatic that my poem “Lines To Nowhere”, has been accepted and published in Spillwords Magazine today, and I am very grateful to the editor Dagmara for selecting my piece … Please go over and visit my poem at Spillwords and if you wish, leave a 💗 for my article, by clicking on this link >>

Lines To Nowhere









Ivor Steven (c) June 2nd 2023

Throwback Friday, Tomorrow’s Cake

I’m still stuck at home with my friendly ‘covid’ bug, and my Senryu from June 2022 seems to be quite appropriate for today.


Tomorrow’s Cake (a Senryu)




the future tastes like 

yesterday’s cake, covered with 

venom from today








Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Words Are Free


 “Dear Reader, beware. You think you’re reading my poems, but in truth, they are reading you. My words are mirrors and windows. Your reaction is merely a reflection of your own nature and experiences.” — John Mark Green



A Ten-Word Poem (Words Are Free)

A bewitched heart 

Savagely eaten by vultures 

Cannot be restitched  




FREE, a PDF Copy of my poetry booklet; Shangri La, Volume 2. The Other Side of Yesterday
Click >> HERE






Ivor Steven (c) June 2023

Shangri La, Volume 2. The Other Side of Yesterday

FREE PDF COPY >>> Links Below

Hello, dear readers and followers, as you might know I stopped producing my “Tullawalla Booklets” at # 31, because that was the house number of our family’s Tullawalla Homestead.
But the booklet formats are a superb way for me to catalogue the vast number of poems that I produce and as the saying goes “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, and they are called “Shangri La” which is the name of my little Villa, and is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
Incredibily, I now have a total of “1452” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
Click >> Here. for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 2. The Other Side of Yesterday“.


The Other Side of Yesterday


 

“Have I come to the end of the road”

I asked the forest’s guardian toad

He quietly replied

“There is always another way

like there is always another day”


Here, is not where I need to stay

I would like to cross the river today

To redefine the other side of yesterday

When life’s narrow causeway

Led me to her underground doorway








Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Behind Your Mirror, Is in this weeks Coffee House Magazine


Hello dear readers and followers, I am now back writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine, after a 6 weak self-enforced break due to my personally hectic schedule during April and May. Luckily, I had my article ready for publication before I contracted ‘Covid’, and my poem “Behind Your Mirror”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to view my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/behind-your-mirror/








Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Boy in a Bubble (Revised)

Another covid/isolation poem from March 2020, although my revised version here is almost a complete rewrite. Good news, today I made a small but noticeable improvement




Boy in a Bubble (Revised)


I’m living inside a bubble, unable to flee

Shadows are drifting away from me

Shivering silhouettes are beyond arms reach

I’m an isolated grain of sand from yesterday’s beach


I’m sleeping alone within my crazy daydreams

Thinking of life and wishing to be with my honey and cream*

This commonwealth of man has isolated the birds and bees

Now I’m sleepwalking, toward the forest’s hugging tree







*Honey and Cream: refers to “Cream and Honey” a poem from my book “Tullawalla”, >> https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Tullawalla&crid=1FWSLQYMP5NLQ&sprefix=tullawalla%2Caps%2C300&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Cream and Honey

I dream of what might have been
Dream of what I have not seen
Snow on top of lover’s hill
Cream filling my empty till

I had forgotten what could have been
Forgotten what I had already seen
Flowers on top of her wooden bier
Honey kisses, and my empty fear

I am dreaming of where I have been
Dreaming of what no-one is ever seen
Snowflakes silently melting in her palm
Cream and honey, my lover’s balm




Ivor Steven (c)  March 2020

Survive Again

Another poem from those “Covid/Lockdown” times, March 2020 …
My Doctor has me on an anti-viral/covid medication to stop my situation from worsening, and hopefully, I’ll be improving soon …




Survive Again – (March 2020)


I’m here, in my writers room

Secure in this single cocoon

But my active mind’s wondering

And dreams, of freely wandering


Be patient I am told

Remember those bad days of old

When your body turned cold

Dead from a unworldly mould


You’re to be a good patient again

Remember those months of pain

When clots and spots invaded your brain

And how you survived, to see your spirit reign









Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

The Sun Arose Again

Hi dear readers, I’m home with the ‘Covid’ virus, so I have been searching my files for some appropriate poems, and found this post from June 2020

“A wonderful surprise for me this morning and a lovely pick-me-up, to find that my poem “The Sun Arose Again”, had been published at ‘Red Wolf Journal’, and thank you to the editor, Irene, for her kind consideration of my submission…”

Red Wolf Journal

The Sun Arose Again
by Ivor Steven

There must be a number of silent masks around
Yesterday an old mask flew away at the speed of sound
From behind, the real pieces of what we perceive
Are leftover bones, bleached by sky and sea
Where the worn pebbles lingering in the hand
Fall gently upon lines drawn in the sand
And these new beginnings could be a heavenly gift
As white doves soar above the mourning cliffs

Perhaps the next awakening will be a peaceful one
Full of friendly compassion and wisdom
I’m lucky today, the sun arose again
To light up the hallway, despite the rain
I’ll be the first one to walk out the door
And the only one left here, to see her valour







Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Throwback Friday, A Forever Coat (Revised)

Hi dear readers, unfortunately, I have tested “Positive” with ‘Covid’ … and will be resting up for a few weeks


A Forever Coat (Revised) 


Her favourite coat still hangs in my wardrobe 

Every time I open the robe’s door 

I inherently see her family heirloom 

A gift that was handed down from her grandmother 

However, a gift she was not able to wear after her sickness began 

Not once, over the next thirty years of her failing frailty


 

Sadly the declining illness brought about her finality

And nostalgically I held onto her favourite coat  

I knew! We all knew. She was amazing

However, she is not going to mystically reappear

And the coat’s warmth will never again cover her gentle shoulders




Consciously I am not sure, why the coat remains 

I have tried to give the coat away 

To a deserving charity, and even a local actor’s group 

Fortuitously her coat has not been accepted 

Here in the wardrobe, the glorious fur coat stays 

Along with the other trinkets of her forever spirit 







Ivor Steven (c) May 2023