Category: Life/lifestyle

Urban Glare (Perceptions, page 43)

The weekend challenge on Weekly Prompts is: Urban. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here … Below is my response to their prompt, and the poem is also included in my new book “Perceptions”, due to be released in early December
Featured Image Above: by Derrick Knight >> https://derrickjknight.com/2022/04/28/across-the-stream/

Perceptions






Urban Glare (Perceptions, page 43)




Down into the valley

I wander

Away from urban glare

Beyond reach

Of those who do not care

About nature’s faded flare

Along a cool creek

I wander

Away from urban air

Beyond sight

Of those arrogant stares

Who do not see nature’s plight






Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

Flute (Ro)

Today’s piece was inspired after reading Robert Okaji’s wonderful poem “Ro”, please go and visit his fantastic poetry site by clicking on this link >> https://robertokaji.com/2022/11/11/ro-5/

Note: Ro designates the fingering required to produce a particular note on the shakuhachi, the traditional Japanese bamboo flute. In this case, closing all holes.

Feature Image Above: With the kind permission of Robert Okaji, the image was copied from his post “Ro”


Flute (Ro)


the melody lingers

beyond soft fingers


above the hollow

a note was borrowed

by the former mentor


you are not the lamenter

please return

to the aspiring sender






Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

Tullawalla #30, Miles From Home

Hello dear readers and followers, I am pleased to announce that I have managed to produce my “Thirtieth Tullawalla” Booklet … For new readers that don’t know about these booklets, they are basically the reason why I write poetry. I produce these ‘home-printed’ booklets for the sole purpose of raising funds for my favourite charity organisation, the MS Society, in Australia via the MS Charity Shop here in Geelong. And actually all money’s I receive for any of my poetry .via, submissions, I donate to the MS Society…. I’m proud to announce, that the sale of my “Tullawalla Booklets”, have now gone pass $1500.00, … to all the lovely readers, who have donated, to help achieve such a wonderful amount, a big heartfelt thank you, from “us” and the MS Society … …..Incredibly, there is now a total of “1303 poems”, Yep, over “A Thirteen Hundred Poems” in my collection/series of “30” Tullawalla Booklets. After 3 months, this booklet is finally completed, and ready for sale now !! As always, they are available for purchase, either as a hard copy ‘Booklet’, or a PDF format….. All proceeds go to the MS Charity Shop, here in Geelong West….. Please contact me here through my website page and I can chat to you about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla, Miles From Home”… And here is the link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com



Miles From Home 

Now

He gives me that inquisitive stare 

“Don’t look at me like that 

I know mate, I know 

I should never have left the wife”


Today 

I went left, instead of right 

No matter what direction 

Or decision I choose 

At the end of day 

There will be night 

My time to rest  

And remain out of sight 


Tonight 

I will sleep under the stars 

With my loyal companion 

By my side


Tomorrow 

I shall take the backroads 

Miles away from my troubled life 

Miles and miles 

Beyond those days of strife 








Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

Moonlight Words, is in Coffee House Writers Magazine

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









Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

Courtyard Full of Dreams (Tullawalla, page 112)

G’day dear readers and followers. After the hetic situation of my book launch yesterday, I am taking a well earned break and holiday at my brother’s place in Ballarat … I’ll just be posting older poems, or poems from Tullawalla for a little while. The Featured Image above; is from my brothers balcony looking across to Mt Warrenheip …

Here I have photograph the poem from my copy of Tullawalla.








Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

My Book Launch, for Tullawalla

“Every picture tells a story” … I told the stories, and the warm smiles on everyones faces was my reward.

Judy, my publisher (Jaymah Press) …. My front table presentation

Reciting my poems, ‘Dreams of the Heart’, ‘Decades of Storms’, and ‘Coffee, Lamingtons, Life is a Serviette’

Mingling with the patrons at my book launch, from left to right, Neil & Andrea, Guenter (President of Geelong Writers Inc) … TJ (lowercase poetry, Daryl, my siblings, Miffy & Lawrie, me & Michaela, and Pip, whose wedding I went to “50” years ago

Judy, Joshua (Analogue Academy, and Marg & Pip, who were at my wedding “46” years ago.

I signed lots of books, here with Mickaela (lowercase poetry)







Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

Coffee, Lamingtons, Life Is A Serviette, or, Preparing For My Book Launch on Saturday

My book launch for “Tullawalla” is on Saturday, and appropriately one of the poems I am going to read at the event will be “Coffee, Lamingtons, Life is a Serviette”



Coffee, Lamingtons, Life Is A Serviette (Tullawalla, page 59)


I’m beginning to enjoy the ride

Black-ice used to scour my track

I’m wryly visualizing the other side

There’s no more turning back

Life is like a roller-coaster ride

Around the old amusement park

Slow and bumpy on the way up

The scenery is romantic at the top

Suddenly the frightening downhills test my grip

Eventually grinding to a smooth halt

Arriving at the bottom, I step out of my capsule

I yell out, “Wow that was fun, let’s do it again”

And that is my life

Jumping back on board my star-ship

For another flipping and dipping trip

Staring down through alien eyes and letting it rip






Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

After Memoria

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


After Memoria 


Sliding into euphoria 

After falling out of Memoria 


Where to start

When there is no beginning 

The judges guns remain loaded 

But there is no-one on the causeway


Why is the coldest mountain?

In the middle of the desert

How to climb the lowest alps?

Below the deepest ocean 

How to soar and fly? 

Without wings in a vacant sky 

Can the old river be paddled? 

After the bath runs dry 


Where to find happiness

After falling in the marathon 

How to slide into euphoria 

After falling out of Memoria






Ivor Steven (c) October 2022


The Closing Chapter

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