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.

Never-mind (written by Frankie)






Never-mind (written by Frankie)




Woof! Not today
It’s only ten degrees outside
And there’s a bitter wind
Gusting in from the South Pole

Then my boss tells me
I’m already booked-in
However, in his right hand
I see my winter jacket

OK, never-mind
Now I’m ready to go
For my springtime haircut











All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

A Swift Little Wattlebird, is in this week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine edition.


Hello dear readers and followers, I am a writer for “Coffee House Writers magazine” (USA), on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “A Swift Little Wattlebird”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. …
To Read my poem, please click on the link below to visit the article, at Coffee House Writers Magazine.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/a-swift-little-wattlebird/












All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

The Grey Sky Embellished My Snap Shots





The Grey Sky Embellished My Snap Shots


Today’s sky was a vast picture frame
Like a historic painting of the clouds by Monet
Or an abstract slate cube by Picasso

The atmosphere’s filtered light
Was a perfect mono-tonal background
That silhouetted the flying fauna
And helped embellish my snap shots
Of the birds and dragonflies












All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

The Bunny With Orange Ears

Over at Weekly Prompts, the monthly Colour Challenge is, Mainly Orange
To visit their fabulous site, please click on >> Here



The Bunny With Orange Ears



The young bunny
Sat there quietly
Nibbling on the grass
Looking through my
rose coloured glasses
His big orange ears
Showed no fear
Until I was very near
Then he high-tailed
For the bushes and rails












All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm

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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

Pearls in the Oyster






Pearls in the Oyster

Oh, what a wonderful day
Bees and birds
Butterflies and dragonflies
Bunnies and doggies

Sunny springtime
And a splendid sunset
Oh, what a wonderful world











All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm



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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

Throwback Friday, A Banner Of Sunflowers

I planted sunflower seeds in my courtyard garden this afternoon, which prompted me to post today’s Throwback Friday poem, “A Banner of Sunflowers”. The poem originally stems from a Geelong Writers Ekphrastic poetry workshop, in May 2022, and this was my poetic response to Shirley Drayton’s creative piece of textile artwork “Golden Sunflowers”.
Please Note: the poem also appears in my book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”, in Chapter 6, War! Without Peace? on page 86.



A Banner Of Sunflowers

look!
up there
above the War’s
darkest clouds
there is a blue banner
embroidered with sunflowers
swaying
through a hole
in the eastern sky

bearing a message
of ‘Hello’
or is it ‘Goodbye’?
a sweeping reminder
from our Ancestors
“we feel your suffering and pain
from the merciless hard rain
blood-filled rivers and cratered plains
smoke-filled skylines and cracked windowpanes”

“however, we also know
beyond the broken horizon
the sunflower plants of hope
will germinate again
and future seeds for peace
will regenerate a new campaign“












All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

Shangri La, Volume 10. Sailing Around the World

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 I produce and as the saying goes “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, 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”.
Incredibly, I now have “1811” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
(on my bookshelf I have “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, which contains 1775 poems … when I first started writing poems, I never envisaged that I would produce so many poems … )

Click on >> Here.  for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 10, Sailing Around the World











Ivor Steven (c) October 2024

Living On Solid Ground

Please Note: The photos were taken by Derrick Knight, and he kindly allows me to reproduce them here on my poetry site.
>> https://derrickjknight.com/2024/09/11/landscape-and-woodland/






Living On Solid Ground

Under a shady tree, I grow
I wriggle my toes
Into the moist mossy mound
Where the sun never touches the ground


I push upward without a sound
Wearing a small golden crown
That covers my short nightgown
Then I open and shakedown
Over the undergrowth’s brown eiderdown














All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) September 2024

Who’s the Dummy?






Who’s the Dummy

Flighty birds
Sprightly dragonflies


Frightened rabbits
Friendly dogs

Filtered sunlight
Springtime mushrooms

Nature’s meadows
Do not grow dummies












All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) September 2024

Invincible Pieces

In December, my poem/verse, ‘Invincible Pieces’, will appear at the “Creative Geelong Makers Hub” in the front window gallery (Third Space) on Little Malop St. 132 Centrepoint Arcade. Geelong
The display will include “15″ artists’ interpretations of the broken jar, over various disciplines, “bringing new life and finding beauty in the damaged and discarded”…






Invincible Pieces

I, a broken ginger jar
I, have been damaged and mismanaged
I, am repairable and valuable













All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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





Ivor Steven (c) September 2024