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
In the wake of the recent devastating storms in the Philippines, nature’s fragility echoes through broken branches and scattered leaves. This Tanka reflects on the quiet aftermath—where hope lingers, and the question of restoration remains tenderly unanswered.
Neurotic Wind (a Tanka)
I hope – and wonder –
after the neurotic wind
shyly stops blowing:
who’ll repair the broken trees,
and rescue the orphaned leaves?
Ivor Steven © October 2025
My Dark Apparition
I saw a mellow sun
Melt into a grey sky
I saw a shallow moon
Fall under a dark curtain
I sliced the sickly atmosphere
With the Reaper’s shadowy sickle
I heard a little wattlebird
Tip-toeing through the broken trees
I listened to a killer whale
Crawling along a black, oily beach
I felt the stained seashells
Squelch into my murky footprints
I was dozing on a bed of tanbark
And after my brown eyes opened
I wondered. Was I having a nightmare
Or was my dark apparition real?
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
Live and Let Die
The misty Full Moon sighed
My garden Magpie cried
And the Twilight Bunnies
In a startled stride
Ran away to hide
The Titan Arum* flower had died
And with compassionate pride
I felt like a loveless bride
Speechless and teary-eyed
* Titan Arum, the Corpse Plant.
All Books. Now Available At:
Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm
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 (c) November 2024
Sailing, Around the World
With my spaceship’s sails full
And the spinnaker pulling us west
Our journey around the world
Will be an expeditious adventure
Navigating our way over polluted oceans
And above war-ravaged ground
I’ll be confirming, first-hand
That our planet is, water, green, and round
And not a flat contaminated compound
All Books. Now Available At:
Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm
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 (c) September 2024
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 