Today’s Throwback poem is a rewrite of an old piece called “Paper Tigers” (Feb 2019)


The Poet’s Grotto
My writer’s studio, is the littered part of my bedroom
A paper tiger’s haven, has become a messy grotto
I am ruefully feeling muddled and befuddled
Pieces of paper and cardboard kites
Scatter the atmosphere like withered autumn leaves
Falling upon my untidy and cluttered archives
Scribbled words are yet to be decoded
Foolscap pages overwritten and eroded
Undefined and unlisted
Out of focus and twisted
Upside down and inside out
Uncategorized and full of self-doubt
My desk’s dreamy picture postcard
Looks like a moonscape’s junkyard
My poetic writing quill has been the mythological ruler
Showing no regard for my bedroom’s demeanour
I am sleeping covered in my hurdy gurdy verses
I cannot penetrate the stack of obscure foreign addresses
It is time to cast out the pretentious cosmic curses
Free myself of all unpublished jabberwocky
And let my imagination create a new poetic hard copy
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
















