A Throwback Friday Poem – Page 2

Throwback Friday, This Lost Shadow

Today’s Throwback Friday poem, ‘This Lost Shadow’, was my first-ever published poem, in the anthology ‘Melpomene’, edited by Gwendolyn Taunton. Melpomene is a collection of poetry, prose and short fiction named after the Greek Muse of Tragedy. The central theme of the anthology is the beauty found in sorrow and the darker sides of human nature. Melpomene is broken into four sections: Liber Veneficium (Book of Magic), Liber Maeroris (Book of Sorrow), Liber Fatum (Book of Fate), and Liber Mortuorum (Book of Death). Each section contains both new and classic literature dealing with these themes. Authors in this volume include Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Taunton, Azsacra Zarathustra, Math Jones, Bernardo Sena, J. Karl Bogartte, C. B. Liddell, James WF Roberts, Christopher Pankhurst, H. A. Cledones, Tamas Nagyatadi Horvath, L. Alexander Carle, Bill Noble, Marg Howlet, Ivor Steven and Gene Banyard. Containing works both old and new, Melpomene offers a prime selection of works on the melancholic side of existence, the transformational beauty of the esoteric, occult secrets hidden in verse, sorrow, doom and the inevitable grasp of death. Melpomene will haunt the reader with a dark and unearthly beauty that is both forbidden and forlorn… >> https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Melpomene+by+Gwendolyn+Taunton&crid=3KH5IGU638GFK&sprefix=melpomene+by+gwendolyn+taunton%2Caps%2C903&ref=nb_sb_noss

This Lost Shadow

I’m writing this song for my body and for my soul.
I’m singing this song, about my return from the cold.
Why am I so tired? Is sixty so old?
Why am I so sore? Have I been far too bold?
I’m physically worn out and mentally torn.
I’m so worried about my every waking dawn.
I’m thinking of this quiet life, for you and for me.
I’m wondering if this vigilant life is too hard for me.
I’m pondering if this tragic life shall continue to be.
And feeling this bonded life, drifting out to sea.

I’m writing these words for everyone to see.
I’m writing this book about a single weeping tree.
Why am I so sleepy? Am I aging too quickly?
Why am I so sad? Who is looking after me?
I’m this furnace log, burning up with glee.
I’m this sinking boat, all about to flee.
I’m this overburdened camel, or a donkey maybe.
I’m this empty desert, a void, far as the eye can see.
I’m this broken branch, withering and dying, oh so slowly.
I’m this lost shadow, wandering this barren land furtively.

Ivor Steven (c) October 2025

Throwback Friday, Blue Pastic Tripe

Recently, the theme of most of my poems has been nature and our treatment of the environment. Today’s Throwback Friday poem, written in October 2019, was also a reflective poem about nature.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. … Albert Einstein

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. … Albert Einstein

Blue Plastic Tripe

The sun’s filtered warmth
Opens my notebook
And a red wine
Enhances the imagination nook
This Cafe’s quietly humming
Enticing my visions into reality
As my heart beats out a rhyme
Listening to melodic rhythms
And I sing to myself, a worldly question
Do we have the character —
to repair our transgressions?

A forest symphony’s chiming,
“All my leaves are brown.”
Touching a sensitive soul, one more time
Forcing my dancing feet down to the coastline
Where I hear Mother Earth, singing the blues
And sad mermaids are playing harps in tune,
to the ancient whales, deep moaning sounds
” The ocean now covers me, in plastic tripe”
Are we hearing the lullaby of his final night?

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 © October 2025

Throwback Friday, Intertwined

Recently, the theme of most of my poems has been nature. Today’s Throwback Friday poem, written in September 2021, was also a reflective poem about nature.

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – I have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.” ― Walt Whitman

Intertwined

Why are we deaf and blind?
How can we be so silently unkind?
Nature is not our kitchen to be redesigned

Mother Earth is our holy shrine
Our one and only protective rind
All we need is her love intertwined

______________________________________

Featured Image: Forest Garden, Mt Dandenong, Victoria, by Greg Brave

______________________________________

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 © October 2025

Throwback Friday, Lights Above Bridges

Featured Image: Pixabay. Aurora Borealis

Yesterday, while we were walking along the banks of the Barwon River, we passed under the historic Queens Park Bridge, so today’s Throwback Friday poem is quite appropriate; originally written in September 2021.

Lights Above Bridges (Revise)

Bridges span our invisible years
And carry our forgotten tears
Crossing over old hidden fears

Bridges are burnt over time
Years turn to ashes in an instant
And time is our only constant

Beyond the longest bridges
Under the ocean’s bluest seas
And above nature’s greenest hues
Love’s pulsating Aurora nights renew

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 © October 2025

Throwback Friday, A Chalice of Champagne, by Ivor Steven

Today’s Throwback Friday Poem is another poem from my book “Tullawalla”, which I originally wrote in September 2019

A Chalice of Champagne (Tullawalla, page 103)

Once upon a time
In the days of rhyme
When learning to climb
I saw my neon sign
Slowly die by design

An angel’s teardrop fell
Ringing the church bell
And missing my empty well
From the tower of song, I wanted to yell
But life does not let you dwell

Despite the annual September rain
I trekked over flooded plains
Avoiding delta swamps of pain
Scaling the same old mountain again
Searching for our chalice of champagne

Ivor Steven (c) September 2025

Throwback Friday, It Was Time To Leave

Cousin Lynn and Robin with Mungo and Kelly

Cousin Maureen and doggies Z-Z and Co-Co

Cousin Penny, and then Dave, Penny, and Ivor

Here I am on a Jet Plane, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Therefore today’s Throwback Friday poem is a very appropriate finale piece, to coincide with my amazing adventures in Canada over the past 21 days.

It Was Time To Leave (Revised)

It’s time to tidy up my mess
Clean up the room and get dressed
It’s time to pack my suitcase
Fill the travel bag and vacate this place
It’s time to put on my famous rocker shoes
And walk away from this dream come true
It’s time to say heartfelt goodbyes
To these wonderful Canadian guys
It’s time for final hugs and kisses
Sad farewells and best wishes
It’s time for my usual emotional tears
Separate myself from these every day cheers
It’s time to flyaway from a land of berries and fairies
Leave this magical world of faraway families
It’s time to say a million thank you’s
For making my stay a Really Real great do
It’s time for me to travel back home
With glorious memories of this magical Astrodome

Ivor Steven (c) September 2025

Throwback Friday, Within Us

I am entering the last five days of my journey to Canada and appropriately I have chosen “Within Us” as my Throwback Friday poem. This nostalgic piece also appears in my book “Tullawalla”, Chapter 6, page 98.

Remembering our 49th wedding anniversary, Carole

Within Us

The oceans wave us goodbye.
Sand and sea, one beach.
Like the surfs white crest.
Love is, within our lonely breasts.

The lands push us apart.
Alps and plains, one realm.
Like a rivers rocky cascade.
Love is, a turbulent escapade,

The sky opens us up.
Dawn and dusk, one sun.
Like the moons daytime eclipse.
Love is, a hidden apocalypse.

The universe covers us complete.
Stars and planets, one creation.
Like the distant Milky Way.
Love is, within us to stay.

Ivor Steven (c) September 10th 2025

Throwback Friday, Quietly I Exist

Today’s Throwback Friday Poem appears in my revised edition of “Tullawalla”, July 2022, and was originally written as a travel log piece about my overseas journey to, America, Philadelphia, in May 2019.

Quietly I Exist

I’m writing words from the edge of time

And pondering my life’s lack of rhyme

Thinking every moment is an ironic crime

And quietly, I exist only in mime

Life is a mountain of ups and downs

Sharp thorns and slippery crowns

For me, every moment is a good day

Behind me, I leave yesterday

And today I’ll by-pass midday

On my way to bathing in tomorrow’s sun-rays

We are not here to control nature

But we are responsible for her future

I don’t think humans are meant to be

Poisoning the sea with plastic and mercury

I cannot be the king of this stagnant world

But I am free as my wings unfurled

My eyes have been opened again

To reveal the sky, sunshine and rain

Now I see beyond every yellow door

There was once an original world

So, I’ll turn the latch to discover more

And give realities of life a whirl

Ivor Steven (c) Sept 2025

Dusty Passport

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is from February 2019, when I was preparing myself for a trip to America/New York/Philadelphia, to visit my Philadelphia “cousins”, and today, here I am on Vancouver Island visiting my Canadian “cousins”.

Dusty Passport

Here I was resting, home again from the hospital
After a second stroke had laid me up
I was rekindling thoughts of travelling to America
An adventure I’d always promised myself
Night is not always dark, you know
Firstly, I had to find my passport
Yes, I’d hidden it somewhere safe
After turning the bedroom inside out
Then, throwing the lounge room upside down
The lost document was on a garage shelf
Looking dusty, but still only five years old
Jumping for joy, you’d think I’d found gold
Hardly ever been stamped, a Chinese one, that’s all
Many years have passed since my last call
I clasped that passport firmly in my hand
And I said, “It’s time”, before my clock runs out of sand

Ivor Steven (c) August 2025

Throwback Friday, Birds in Flight

A Welcome Swallow in flight

This morning on my walkie with Frankie, I was lucky enough to photograph a ‘Welcome Swallow’ in flight. So, appropriately, today’s Throwback Friday poem is “Birds in Flight”, written in February 2023. The poem also appears in my book, ‘Until Eyes Hear Sound’ (Chapter 1, page 14)

Birds in Flight

Our spirit birds sleep all night
Then emanate at first light
To resume their dedicated flights

Our watchtower sentinels of Mother Earth
Who sacredly ascend at first light
Forever in flight, since nature’s worldly birth