Featured Image Above: Where the sky opens, freedom rises first
Freedom Without Gasoline
Yes, I must go
Beyond the world’s mist and snow
Flying above the trees
Is nature’s gift to me
Removed from the maddening crowd
Here, freedom is proud, unbowed
And the air is almost clean
Except for the smell of gasoline
A song for the quiet courage of taking flight
Ivor Steven © March 2026
In a world scarred by mines, machines, and careless extraction, the sky remains a refuge for those who choose to protect rather than exploit. These Black Knights rise through that open air as nature’s quiet defenders, calling us to join their watch.
Black Knights
We are nature’s Black Knights,
guardians of the planet’s salvage rights.
Watch us soar into the light
There above the earth’s trees,
where the atmosphere is free,
beyond the Daleks of mankind’s
dreadful coalmines and destructive landmines.
“
Now is the time to become a member
of our sky’s peaceful nerve centre.
We welcome all monitors, menders,
clever inventors, and recycled pretenders.
Ivor Steven © March 2026
Once numbering in the tens of millions, the “bulbous” bison were nearly wiped out — victims of human greed and policy.
Over at Weekly Prompts, the weekend challenge is the word bulbous. And you visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here.
Insatiable Sapiens
A flock of birds
fly together.
Herds of animals
graze together.
Humans of different creeds
blast each other apart –
for their stockpiled seed,
and insatiable greed.
A quiet reckoning beneath the branches we share.
Ivor Steven © March 2026
Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me.
With two sharp‑eyed magpies and a pale daytime moon looking on, this little poem takes flight as a whimsical protest — a light‑feathered reminder that even the quiet watchers on the fence have something to say about the state of our cluttered world.
Who’s Watching Whom
I’m perched on the fence,
wondering about the world’s
lack of common sense,
and I ask the moon,
“Is there no end to this gloom?”
“Do not worry, my feathered friend –
this is not the end.”
“Soon there will be enough elbowroom
for everyone’s nom de plume
in the planet’s master bedroom,
after Mother Nature has donned
her cleaning costume,
and swept all of the needless showrooms,
backrooms, ballrooms, and boardrooms.”
“And the people should all help groom
their own untidy playrooms
with those unused yardbrooms.”
And here’s a song that hums along with the magpies’ quiet protest…
Ivor Steven © February 2026
Featured ImageAbove: Created by Copilot and me.
Winds outside and storms within. Nature shifting, people shifting, and a song that carries the ache of distance. A small piece for looking outward, and inward, at the same time.
Don’t Open the Venetian Blinds
Turbulent seas,
And broken trees
Nature’s wild winds –
Do spellbind mankind’s
Undefined minds.
Buckled knees,
And breaks in the bay’s
Protective quays
Nature’s stone-blind to mankind’s
Redesigned minds.
Ivor Steven © January 2026
The Moon and the Tycoon
Late afternoon
The crows are in tune
Even without the moon
Nature’s towering, white dunes
Are the birds, cushioned saloon
There
Beyond the tycoon’s
Loud trumpets and bassoons
Where
The unknighted buffoon
Uses his innate silver spoon
To lampoon the tribunals
“Devon Church’s Fall Like Lightning — a soundtrack for protest and reflection.”
Ivor Steven (c) December 2025
A wintry first of December—where summer forgets itself beneath cloud and quiet flight.
Summer Forgotten
December ‘one’ has forgotten to remember
that it is the first day of summer.
Nature’s clandestine cloud-lover
has eloped with the sun’s warm river.
There shall be no supernova today;
even the hardy magpie has run away.
Ivor Steven (c) December 1st 2025
Featured Image Above: Springtime in retreat—wings scatter beneath a dismal sky, and midday wears an unnatural hush. Today’s weather speaks in riddles and ice, echoing the questions we dare to ask: Is our dome becoming incompatible?
Incompatible
Among the bushes, we anxiously fly,
Sheltering from the world’s sinister sky.
The dismal clouds are in a miserable mood,
And full of destructive ice-cubes.
An unnatural darkness has befallen midday —
Who has stolen our springtime clearway?
Is climate change responsible?
Is our doomed dome liable
to become globally incompatible?
Let this song carry the weight of today’s sky—an echo of wings, words, and warnings we cannot ignore.
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
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
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 