Category: Life & Nature

Winter’s Rainbows (a Tanka)

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the monthly Colour Challenge, and for June, they selected the colour Blue. To visit their fabulous site, please click on Here
Today, my Tanka is about Rainbows, and there’s Blue in a rainbow





Winter’s Rainbows (a Tanka)

Autumn waves goodbye
Winter winds and gloomy skies
Inundate our eyes
Despite the icy, hard rain
Rainbows shine, and do not cry







.


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 © June 2025

Throwback Friday. Sunset, A Moment in Time

I have been focusing on sunsets lately, so appropriately, my Throwback Friday poem is a ‘Sunset’ verse that I wrote in March 2023. However, please note that all images in today’s post were taken this evening.






Sunset, A Moment in Time

here
I stand
waiting
I see
clouds lifting
paddocks shimmering

here
I stand
camera in hand
waiting
for that pivotal moment
where the edge of time
implodes

here
I see
the golden sun
and a tree-lined horizon
majestically collide

sunset!
7.35 pm
click!
picture perfect






.


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 © May 2025

Intoxicating


Eugi’s poem

impulsive nature
lauds summer in floral dress
intoxicating

Moonwashed Musings Weekly Prompt >> Let one or more words in my poem be your inspiration.>> http://amanpan.com/2025/06/03/moonwashed-weekly-prompt-june-3-2025/




Intoxicating


Moonlight candles do not cry
And nature never tells a lie

Amber sunsets deny
There is no final goodbye

The pink twilight sky
Knowingly decries
“Tomorrow does not die”

With every breath, I sigh
The universe is my high







Ivor Steven (c) June 2025

Shangri La, Volume 14. Purple Tomato Tree

FREE PDF COPY >>> Links Below

Hello, dear readers and followers. As you might know, I stopped producing my “Tullawalla Booklets” at # 31 because that was the house number of our family’s Tullawalla Homestead.
However, the booklet format is a superb way for me to catalogue the vast number of poems I produce, and as the saying goes, “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, called “Shangri La”, the name of my little Villa, and it is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
I now have “2004” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
(On my bookshelf, I have “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, which contains 1775 poems … when I first started writing poems, I never envisaged that I would produce so many poems)

Click on >> Here, for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 14, Purple Tomato Tree”

OR … Shangri La, Vol 14, Purple Tomato Tree.pdf




Purple Tomato Trees

I have hallucinations of Vikings sailing in the cold
Plundering forgotten hearts and pilfering gold

I am dreaming of the old farmer’s wife
Milking cows and baking all her life

I have feelings for the king, in his isolated castle
Looking forlornly upon his drawbridge, a foodless trestle

I am wandering through an empty paddock
Kicking dew off the grass, searching for a lover’s locket

I have plans for the planet’s desolate future
Growing purple tomato trees until they are mature

I remember her bravery, her everlasting smile
Fading gradually, in her own gracious style

I have ceased stumbling under her distant sky
Now claiming peace among today’s butterflies







Ivor Steven (c) June 2025

A Technical Knockout


Today’s poem is from a poetic response that I post about ‘Violet’s’ emotive poem >> https://violetslentz.home.blog/2025/05/27/pink-slip-2/

And over at Weekly Prompts, it’s the last weekend of the month and time for their One Day Prompt! To visit their fabulous site, please click on > Here




A Technical Knockout



When you’re down and out
feeling like a dry river-bed trout
flipping around after an endless drought
And you’re in the vacant corner of another losing bout
There’ll be one day, without doubt
you’ll have nothing left to shout about

Please, I beg, one last Guinness stout
before I get kicked in the spout
by Trump’s next lockout roundabout

After the ruthless rout,
when I blacked out
I was told by a local layabout
“there was no doubt,
the decision was a Technical Knockout”






Ivor Steven (c) June 2025

A New Anthology (a Tanka)

Feature Image: Please note that my copy of the Geelong Writers Inc. Anthology 2024 was signed by the editor, Judy Rankin, and Judy is also the publisher/editor of my 3 books, Tullawalla, Perceptions, and Until Eyes Hear Sound.





A New Anthology (a Tanka)



Through rain, hail, or shine
I am the messenger bird
I’ve important news
About the Anthology
Don’t let the wires clip my wings



And here is my poem from the Geelong Writers Inc. Anthology







Ivor Steven (c) May 2025

Autumn’s Dry White Clouds





Autumn’s Dry White Clouds

There is a cold, lonely wind blowing
Through the whispering tree tops
And here below the heavy blue sky
I am leaning like a knave bowing
Meanwhile
I see Autumn’s dry white clouds
Quietly drift away without waving goodbye

Mystified, I am wondering why
This season has been so dry








.


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 © May 2025

Flying Away





Flying Away

A swift little fantail, or flashy wattlebird
A trusty magpie, or even a hardy crow
I’m not overly fussy or bossy

Actually, Air New Zealand
Was my preferred choice
Four hours to Auckland
Thirteen hours to Vancouver
Then a short trip to the Island’s
Victoria Airport

My hometown, Geelong
Is in the State of Victoria (Australia)
And here I am flying to Canada
Then, finishing up in Victoria







.


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 © May 2025

The Horizon’s Encore (a Tanka)


Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word Silhouette. To visit their fabulous site, please click on >>HERE
I have not mentioned the word ‘Silhouette in my poem, but after sunset,
the sky is covered in colourfull ‘silhouettes’.




The Horizon’s Encore (a Tank)


Half an hour after
The sun’s disappearing act
The horizon’s lights
Refused to exit the stage
When Twilight called out for more







Ivor Steven (c) May 2025