Category: Horror

Burning the Fears

Over at Weekly Prompts, the word: Backwards is the Weekend Challenge. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here. – Below, I followed Sue’s suggestion and went “Backwards” through my files and found this intriguing piece from September 2017
Featured Image: Artwork, by Kerri Costello, Graphic Design Artist, my amazing niece/second cousin, who lives in Philadelphia, and I think this was the first design that she created for my poetry website.


Burning the Fears


I’m frightened, and too scared to show my face

And knowingly, I’m arriving late

The ghouls are spying from the hill

And lower fools are poisoning her will

Underneath her, a wicker complete

Above, she’s suspended from a stake

The bonfires started, against the rules

And the crowds rejoicing, as the fire drools

Waiting agog, for her garments to ignite

The flames are crackling below her tonight

And the mob’s listening for her ungodly screams

But there’s not a whimper! Within she beams

And secretly, I see her black cat’s drowning tears

Are extinguishing all her burning fears






Ivor Steven (c) August 2023

Throwback Friday, The Reincarnation of a Pumpkin

Today I am presenting another poem that will be appearing in my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”. I wrote ‘The Reincarnation of a Pumpkin’ in October 2020, and the poem will be the opening piece in the Weird Section, of Chapter 9. Humour, Fantasy, Faeries, and Weird.

 


The Reincarnation of a Pumpkin


My locked bubble is about to go boom

A year I’ve been a stranger in my own tomb

Under a pumpkin lid, hiding my gloom

Where my world was a rotting cave of doom




Now these orange walls are my life-giving womb

Being reborn like a smiling old groom

I’m breaking away from the master’s dead blooms

Escaping on the green witch’s magical broom




Flying over the full moon of autumn

Where I’ll be able to wear my mask and costume

Hidden under my orange Kaftan from Khartoum

And I’ll invade the newsrooms, and the children’s bedrooms








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/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) August 2023

My Darkest Ocean





My Darkest Ocean

 
 
 
I am not asleep 

Nor am I awake 

I am adrift 

Inside my worst nightmare 


I am paddling my leaking canoe 

Across a thick oil-slick 

A slimy and sickly syrup 

Polluting my Antarctic Ocean 


I see gasping penguins drowning 

I slide my arm around their grease-caked feathers 

Grasping their Frenziedly flailing wings 

Fervently trying to save them 

My canoe is rapidly bulging at the seams 

We are listing, and slowly sinking 


In my clutching arms 

We gather and cling together 

As the cold darkness surges in 

Engulfing my unfathomable dream 








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/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  




Ivor Steven (c) June 2023

Cooking For Frankie (a Tanka)





Cooking For Frankie (a Tanka)


The casserole lid

Breaks, slashing a left digit

Not the typing hand!

An emergency visit

I ask, “How many stitches?”







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/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  



Ivor Steven (c) March 2023

Putin … Would You


I would surrender my poetic soul to you 

If that could hand you compassion? 

To help you stop your war


I would offer my shattered heart to you 

If you are needing a piece of heart?  

To help you stop your war


I would remove my crying eyes 

and stay blind to you 

If your ego is looking for guidance? 

To help you stop your war


President Putin
 
Have you a shred of decency? 

Left inside your arrogant mind


Would you? 

Desert your grandchildren 

And Evict them to be

Homeless and frightened






Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

The Children’s Empty Streets



Do they hear humanity’s fears?

Will that day come?

When all the big ears

Will listen as one


How many rivers of tears must we cry?

Before all our deepest wells run dry

How many innocent children must fall?

Before all the big ears hear their helpless calls


That wounded haunting drawl

The ghostly scrapping sound of homeless feet

Mournfully shuffling along their bombarded streets






Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Innocent Millipedes




Please Mr Shootin’ Putin

Do not roll your tanks of destruction

Over the innocent Mr & Mrs Millipede

Millipedes were the earliest animals to breathe air

And make the move from water to land

They date back 428 million years

Now people of the world cannot hold back their tears


Did you know Mr Shootin’ Putin

That Millipedes are fairly timid critters

Docile decomposers that live in the leaf litter

Of forests all over the world!

They aren’t flashy or fast

And they follow the motto

“Slow and steady wins the race”

Millipedes are peaceful

They don’t bite

They can’t sting

And they don’t have pincers to fight back




Please Mr Shootin’ Putin

Do not roll your tanks of destruction

Over the innocence of creation






Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Red Lilies Under Broken Ground, is up at Coffee House Writers magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, as you may know, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Red Lilies Under Broken Ground”, is in this weeks edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers >>
https://coffeehousewriters.com/red-lilies-under-broken-ground/






Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

The Disappearance of Decency


Introduction

Naked I stand before Him
Stripped of common decency
Debased, I kneel crying
Sad words fall like rain
Tanks are still rolling
Over the Ukraine
My Tanka’s are scrolling
Down their bloody drains



Tanka #1. Sad Sky

False words smudge old clouds
Gray clouds hang under sad sky
The sad sky decries
“Children are our butterflies
And please stop the warring lies”


Tanka #2. Broken Biscuits

Life is imperfect 
Like broken war-time biscuits 
Re-connection waits 
Reconciliation stops 
Life’s sweet shortbread’s unopened 


Tanka #3. Abandoned

May the stormy winds
Calmly abate in Europe
And bring peace quickly
Do not forget the children
We cannot abandon them


Epilogue

Cover me
Give me beauty
Inspire me
Calm me
Save me
From that deadly bee
Above the Black Sea








Ivor Steven (c) March 2022