On Monday a Geelong Writers poetry group went to Rachinger Gallery in East Geelong for an Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop. Here I am presenting the painting, “Owl” by, Gale Jarmyn, and my associated Ekphrastic poem “Will We Choose Wisely”
Will We Choose Wisely? (a Senryu)
The owl shook his head
Angry feathers flew sideways
“You must choose wisely!”
Ivor Steven (c) August 2023
Bird on a Ladder
I am a blackbird on a circus ladder
Singing about how the world is feeling sadder
Or should I sing, “becoming madder”
Here on the last rung, I stand
Below, I see a treeless land
Above, I hear a breathless sky
After the show, I untangle my necktie
And I ask you why
“Does it matter, when I leap, what route do I fly?”
Tullawalla is Available From
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) May 2023
Here is a copy of my article I posted on “Go Dog Go Cafe” this morning,
>> http://godoggocafe.com/2022/12/15/throwback-friday-the-faeries-of-frys-lane-by-ivor-steven/
A poem I wrote in May 2020 and now is published in my book “Perceptions”, page 3, prompted by Derrick Knight’s Featured Photo Above: ‘Hedgerow faeries along Fry’s Lane’ >> https://derrickjknight.com/2020/05/21/hedgerow-fairies/
The Faeries of Fry’s Lane
Walking down Fry’s Lane
Sheltering from the misty rain
I did spy among the hedgerow berries
A Frolic of mystical faeries
Like iridescent glowing canaries
A fluttering of night-time luminaries
Trying not to disturb their magical home
I quietly asked them, “Areyouallalone”
The faeries laughed and danced
They replied, “Your visionisby perchance
and your dreams may turn to stone
if you wish for a golden throne”
Suddenly the glittering sands of time
Illuminating the faeries wings of rhyme
Begun vanishing from their falling stars
And the faeries quickly flew back to their green Avatar
Tullawalla is Available From;
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) December 2022
Featured Image Above; ‘Waiting for Rainfall – Winton Wetlands, a painting by Geelong Artist/Poet, Jo Curtain, and the image was this weeks Geelong Writers Inc. Ekphrastic Photo Prompt, that subsequently inspired my ‘morbid’ poem below
I Am Going to Die
I am a fish out of water
Writhing and flopping
In this polluted puddle
Splosh!
Another toxic garbage bag
Squelches by
How did I ever survive
Here, in the wetland’s stagnant cesspools
Now, my rotting sun-burnt scales
Are covered in flies
Swarming!
The flies are sticking to my eyes
Maggots are clogging my gills
I cannot breathe
I hear Mother calling
“There is no need to cry
It’s your time to die”
Splosh!
The hovering vultures
Have begun swooping
Tullawalla is Available From;
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) December 2022
December is here and the final monthly colour challenge for 2022 at Weekly Prompts is – Pinkish. Please go over and visit their fabulous by clicking >> HERE
Featured Image Above; ‘Weird/Wonderful’, a painting by Geelong Artist Wendy Ratawa, which was this weeks Geelong Writers Inc. Ekphrastic Photo Prompt, that subsequently inspired my colourful poem.
Standing On the Edge of Time
Am I dreaming
Sprawled across Saturn’s rainbow rings
Wishing
I was there
On the edge of Jupiter’s
Multicoloured volcanoes
Observing the chromatic universe
Through my kaleidoscopic eyes
I am here
Standing on the edge of time
Above Tower Hill’s dormant crater
Overlooking a picturesque valley
Of blue lakes and
Multicoloured forests
Tullawalla is Available From;
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
Ivor Steven (c) December 2022
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
On Saturday morning I visited the the local “Pop Up Creatives Market”. The artwork at the “Wild Woodland Warrior” stall, run by Stephanie had many excellent paintings, and I bought a intriguing print “Library of Possibilities” … we had a nice chat, she likes poetry and we had a mutual poet friend in Jeremy Palmer … and she has an exhibition running at the momont at the Analogue Academy, the venue of my book launch next Saturday November 22nd … My poem below, “The Closing Chapter” was inspired her painting in Featured Image Above
The Closing Chapter
After the first page was turned
The saga progressed slowly
Unopened books were lost
Unused words were found
New novels had to be read
The search for more
Went on, and on
Adventure volumes were added
Library expansion soared upwards
Higher than fiction could fly
Fluttering beyond
The ladder’s last rung
Where the quest for more
Was out of reach
And the tale of uncharted possibility
Remained the unfinished story
Of the closing chapter
Ivor Steven (c) October 2022
The Geelong Writers Inc produced this excellent Chapbook from the Ekphrastic workshop that I attended only Three weeks ago, and a big thank you goes to our President, Guenter Sahr, and our hard working Editor, Victoria Spicer …
The Chapbook is available at only $5 via Geelong Writers Inc >> https://www.facebook.com/geelongwritersvic/
Ivor Steven (c) June 2022
The Ekphrastic poetry workshop I attended on Wednesday was an inspiring event, and here I have written a tanka about a clay figurine as depicted in my Featured Image above.
Worldly Smirk (a Tanka)
I do not know you
But your glassy eyes know me
Why that worldly smirk
I have a million questions
Do you have all the answers
Ivor Steven (c) May 2022
Continuing on from yesterday’s Ekphrastic poetry workshop, here is my poetic response to Shirley Drayton’s creative piece of textile artwork “Golden Sunflowers”
A Banner Of Sunflowers
look!
up there
above the War’s
darkest clouds
there is a blue banner
embroided 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 seeds of hope
will germinate again
and future seeds for peace
will regenerate a new campaign“
Ivor Steven (c) May 2022
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 