Category: Anti-war

A Sad Winter Flame (A Tanka)

In May this year, I attended an Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop at the Foundry Studio & Gallery. Today’s Poem/Tanka is another piece I wrote from that day, and which I have not posted on my site before now.
Featured Image Above: My photograph of, Lee McGrath’s fascinating painting, “Winter Flame Tree” (Acrylic on canvas)



A Sad Winter Flame (a Tanka)


Dismayed, how to stop

Leaning against the hard rain

Unseasonal pain

Sodden, a sad winter flame

Downtrodden, a stained Ukraine







Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

A Crescendo For Peace

The weather is wet and windy here in Ballarat, but that does’t matter. I’m resting, relaxing, and enjoying the break. Today’s poem is from June 2019.
Featured Image above; Street art on a building next door to the ‘Analogue Academy’, where my book launch was held on Saturday.

A Crescendo For Peace


Sounds of music, ring in my mind

Our hearts beat, to a slow drum

My soul hears the rhythm of life

I see angels playing a harp’s serenade

In harmony with the royal string quartet

Grand orchestra’s loudly join in

And choirs of the world are singing our song

Together, chiming the peace-bells of our time

Creating a crescendo of music, ringing in my mind








Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

Ask a Blade of Grass

Cassa Bassa. “It’s sad but reflecting a side of truth.
Ivor’s reply. “Despite humanity’s scientific advancements, their humanitarian skills are nonexistent”





Ask a Blade of Grass




Yesterday I looked up

At a grandfather clock

And saw the hands of time


Today I look above

At the gloomy clouds

And see beams of light

Appear through cracks in the sky


Tomorrow I will look down

At our war-torn ground

And ask a blade of grass

Why? Peace cannot be found

In our time






Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

Congregating Every Day

Hello dear readers and followers, this poem today is the first piece I have written for 3 weeks, after being unable to attempt any computer work because of my debilitating back pain. I’m afraid my back is still very sore, and this article has been put together via short sittings at my desk over the last 3 days. I think Derrick’s photos captured my imagination and stirred my tired mind to write something creative.

All Photographs, by Derrick Knight, and thank you once again for allowing me to reproduce your fabulous images here on my poetry site …
>> https://derrickjknight.com/2022/08/18/no-one-told-the-ponies/

And this is now our 39th poem/photograph collaboration, and a “Glossy Coffee-table” type book “Perceptions” is on the way, hopefully, available before Christmas.

No-one told the ponies



Congregating Every Day




There they patiently stand

Congregating every day

Outside the community shop

And the village letterbox


Most of them are posting

Food parcels to their equine relatives

Hungry and abandoned in the Ukraine


Others wait forlornly

For any news of encouragement

About the health and whereabouts

From their frightened families

Inside war-torn Ukraine


There they patiently stand

Congregating every day






Ivor Steven ©  August 2022

Ukraine is in Pain (a Limerick)

Not really a humourous Limerick, this one is quite melancholy, reflecting my back pain over these last few weeks …


Ukraine is in Pain (a Limerick)




There was an old poet in pain

Who had been struck down by hard rain

He felt thorns in his back

Like a missile attack

Misguided shrapnel from Ukraine






Ivor Steven (c) August 2022

Day One (a Repost)

A poem from early in year, while I am here laid up in bed with a sore back


Day One

Before Day One

I wished upon a star
That the milk-bar
Was not too far away
My life’s bread was crumbling
My weathered hands were funmbling
Witnessing the last supper was humbling

Day One

There, beyond the darkness
Out in the universe
From a million light-years away
Under an alien’s microscopic frame
We would all look the same

After Day One

I wished for the dust to settle
Then waited for rusted gunmetal
To mature into household kettles
Whistling hallelujah to new sunflower petals







Ivor Steven (c) August 2022









Metamorphosis, is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem“Metamorphosis”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers >> 
https://coffeehousewriters.com/metamorphosis/

Thank you to Derrick Knight for sending me his butterfly photo to accompany my caterpillar photo >> https://derrickjknight.com/







Ivor Steven (c) July 2022