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
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
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.
Ivor Steven © March 2026
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.
Ivor Steven © March 2026
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.
Ivor Steven © March 2026
Featured Image Above: He calls out early, as if he knows the world is about to tilt again.
Crows in Moscow (a Tanka)
How do the crows know –
when to flee life’s undertow?
Has the status quo
been shot by stupid’s crossbow,
without talking to Moscow?
After all that swooping and shouting, a soft goodbye feels about right.
Ivor Steven © February 2026
Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me, A man stands at the edge of time, where the foreshore fades, and the door to the encore glows.
Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in January 2024) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the opening poem in the Micri Poem section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.
The Last Encore
I am standing on
the diminishing foreshore
Staring at that
missing ground floor
“Like there was a door”
Between here
and the last encore
And so we stand, between here and the last encore — listening for time’s quiet applause.
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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 © February 2026
Until Eyes Hear Sound has already spoken through its poems, but this short video offers another way in — a quiet blend of colour, movement, and mood that reflects the heart of the book.
Across ten chapters, the collection explores nature, memory, imagination, and the questions that shape our lives. The cover’s rising birds and shifting sky mirror the book’s reflective and curious spirit.
This piece serves as a gentle introduction for new readers and a companion for those familiar with my work. It offers a calm entry point and a sense of the book’s emotional palette — more an open door than a traditional trailer.
The images echo the themes of reflection, flight, and stillness. The pacing is unhurried, allowing the mood to settle. This video will also support the broader promotional work coordinated by Gisela.
Watch the Video
A Poem from the Collection
Anomaly
I see a stone wall of sad faces
the refugees from different places
Shuffling on old, shredded boot laces
wearing tattered clothes and frozen braces
These lost cultures of opposite races
begging for water and food traces
living out of torn tents and empty suitcases
And here, people play games in cyberspaces
Until Eyes Hear Sound
Amazon >> Amazon.com : Until Eyes Hear Sound
Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)
Ivor Steven © February 2026
A heavy sky lingering above a thirsty summer, offering a brief, warm whisper of rain.
Summer Rainclouds
The sombre summer clouds
are languishing low overhead.
I can almost touch the greyness –
unfortunately, it’s not raining.
The aura of stillness is unsettling,
and the silence is deafening
But wait – from behind the gloom
I hear Thor’s thunderous roar,
and simultaneously, I see fat drops
warmly splattering on the ground
Ivor Steven © February 2026
My thanks to David, of “The Skeptic’s Kaddish,” for inviting me into this rengay. It was a pleasure to weave our lines together and watch the threads find their own shape.
>> https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/02/23/a-stitch-in-time-or-a-rengay/
A stitch in time, or: A rengay
1 (db)
weeks before Purim—
sticky glue smears small fingers,
needles pull bright threads
2 (is)
intricate puppet costumes
tangled in the maker’s strings
3 (db)
small gnat in a web
silver threads keep their design—
the body trembles
4 (is)
the wood manikins
loose joints suddenly collapse
first aid kit required
5 (db)
eight waiting legs lose purchase
their radial craft undone
6 (is)
unfashionable
staples, glue guns, costume pins
become quick-fix threads
A little Purim mischief to echo the threads and tangled costumes of our rengay.
Ivor Steven © February 2026
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 