Life – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Steve the Snail’s Twisted Trail

Morning wanderings often gift me small mysteries — a snail tracing Olympic rings across the cold pavement, a chalk‑scribbled “One Day” left by some early riser, and the quiet frost that makes creatures reconsider their usual routes. Today, Steve the Snail seemed to have a message for me… and perhaps for anyone feeling a little twisted by winter’s chill.

Over at Weekly Prompts, it’s the final weekend of August, and it’s time for the One Day Prompt. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here

Steve the Snail’s Twisted Trail

I’m wondering if Steve the Snail is lost,
discombobulated by the morning frost

He usually leaves a straight-lined trail
from the rose garden to the window rail

But today his trail looked like Olympic rings —
perhaps a note left by his frozen shoestrings.

A gentle, pressing reminder letter:
“Hey Ivor … where’s my new winter sweater?”

For this frosty morning’s whimsical trail, I’ve paired Steve’s looping, Olympic‑ring wanderings with Nive Nielsen’s ethereal “Are You Ready” — a song that drifts like cold breath and whispers back at the paths we leave behind.

Ivor Steven © August 2026

Tracing the Lines

The late afternoon moon often feels like a reminder — a quiet presence tracing its way across the sky while we trace our own paths below. In its soft light, every line in our hands and every mark on the land seems to carry a story of where we’ve been and where we’re still going. This poem rests inside that moment of reflection, asking what it means to follow the lines that shape our lives.

Tracing the Lines

There you are,
all of you,
way out there,
full and aware –
tracing the lines
in my hands.

And there are
no new brands
on the land;
every grain of sand
still understands.

There’s a crack
in everything –
in all of you
out there,
feeling open and bare –
tracing the lines
in my full glare.

A recently released piece, carrying the same gentle pull of the moon’s slow journey across the sky

Ivor Steven © August 2026

Throwback Friday, Destination

Continuing the Leonard Cohen thread from yesterday, today’s Throwback Friday poem, Destination (June 2024), began as a “writing between the lines” exercise for our Dome Poets group here in Geelong. Using Cohen’s The Goal as my guide (shared below), I tried to shape a companion poem that sits quietly between each of his lines.

Destination, by Ivor Steven

The curtains are open
The front door is ajar
So, I can hear her sing
From her distant star

I do not own much
My soul is a gold mine
I haven’t lost my touch
My heart is kind

I share what I have
I have hope and love
Couldn’t stop the flood
Couldn’t hold her glove

I walk alone
I look content
Regrets are few
Despair ferments

I push on and on
I do not complain
I’m still alive
I’m numb to the pain

No one asks
No one knows
About finality
Under the snow

===========================

“The Goal”, by Leonard Cohen

I can’t leave my house
Or answer the phone
I’m going down again
But I’m not alone

Settling at last
Accounts of the soul
This for the trash
That paid in full

As for the fall, it
Began long ago
Can’t stop the rain
Can’t stop the snow

I sit in my chair
I look at the street
The neighbor returns
My smile of defeat

I move with the leaves
I shine with the chrome
I’m almost alive
I’m almost at home

No one to follow
And nothing to teach
Except that the goal
Falls short of the reach

And finally, before the night fades, the poem whose shadows and truths shaped my own lines — Leonard Cohen’s The Goal.

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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 © August 2026

Winging Toward Peace

Sometimes a single flight can carry more meaning than the landscape beneath it.
This morning’s mudlark — lifting from foreign sands, gliding toward familiar green, then swept off course by an unexpected breeze — became the quiet messenger behind this piece. Its journey echoed the fragile paths we all take toward understanding, toward apology, toward peace.
What followed was a poem shaped by wings, weather, and the distant hum of icy choirs.

Winging Toward Peace

Swooping out past the sands of foreign ground
Then flying toward the green, bushy trees
of that once-fabled promised land —
only to be diverted by a bold eastern breeze
that buckled my wings and trembling knees
and sent me falling into the Arctic freeze,
where icy choirs continue the cheers
still singing in the hush of sub‑zero seas

There, huddling inside an iceberg’s solitary marque,
all the compassionate delegates from overseas
gathered to hear pleas for apologies and guarantees
from Greenland’s patient, peaceful trustees.

From foreign sands to frozen seas, the journey ends where quiet voices still know the weight of peace. And so, in Greenland’s calm, the final note on harmonious independence lingers.

Ivor Steven © August 2026

Opaqueness

Last night’s twilight slipped across the sky in muted layers — a quiet blend of fading colour, soft cloud, and the half‑moon’s pale glow behind drifting haze. Standing there with the camera, I felt the day thinning into something slower, dimmer, almost weightless.
From that hush, this small poem emerged — a reflection on how light, taste, and time blur at the edges as evening diffuses into night.

What Do You See 355
For WDYS, Sadje offers us a photo by Lensloji (Pexels) of a murmuration of birds forming a shifting pattern above a city skyline and minaret at sunset.

Opaqueness

Time is colourless,
yet daytime becomes darkness
as evening clouds advertise
twilight’s transient demise.

Time is tasteless,
yet midnight is infused with blackness
except for the half-moon’s translucent
loving spoonful of notilucence.

And in the quiet blur between knowing and not knowing, this song finds its way.

Ivor Steven © August 2026

The Overseer

These stunning silhouettes stopped me in my tracks — quiet guardians perched above a fragile world. Their calm presence sparked the environmental protest tone of the four couplets below, a reminder of what remains pure when we look up and listen.

The Overseer

I am the overseer of my kingdom,
a global realm without a dome.

No barbed-wire fences, only sky,
beyond mankind’s envious eyes.

No landmines, only trees,
to house and shelter me.

No hard rain, only the sun,
glowing, to enlighten everyone

“And now, let the sky speak, where the light continues in sound, with a final glow of gentle music.”

Ivor Steven © August 2026

Birds of a Feather (a Haiku)

A small moment in the morning sky… a flutter of colour, a whisper of calm, and a reminder of how lightly the world can move when we pause long enough to notice.

Birds of a Feather (a Haiku)

The black and white birds
Fly happily together
A wingspan apart

A quiet nod to harmony — where every feather, every colour, finds its place.

A Fantail’s Flighty Tale, or a Tricky Tail

Sometimes the morning gifts me a little magic.
Yesterday’s wander with Frankie brought a flurry of feathered moments — a Fantail on a rail, a Magpie mid‑grumble, a Mudlark caught in a swirl of tiny bravado. These images arrived with such charm and mischief that the words followed instantly, light as a breeze. What began as a simple set of photos quickly turned into a playful tale of one tiny bird bossing the bigger ones about, all in good humour and whimsy.

The cheeky Fantail and the grumpy Magpie

The twirling Fantail and the brave Mudlark

A Fantail’s Flighty Tale, or a Tricky Tail

I’m not a fiendish tax collector,
nor a fat company director.
I’m not a bossy dictator,
nor a busy Choir conductor.

I’m just a flighty tiny fella
who flits around like a flirty ballerina —
a cheeky little Fantail who unfurls
on the breeze, commander of curls;
Magpie stumbles, Mudlark sighs —
yet all obey my mischievous eyes.

A burst of bright, buoyant energy to match my cheeky Fantail’s playful world — Nick Cave’s “Joy” feels like the perfect musical wink to close this whimsical tale.

Throwback Friday, Soundless

In keeping with this week’s theme on clouds, light, and the quiet mysteries of the universe, I’m revisiting a reflective poem from August 2018. I’ve made a few small word changes — gentle adjustments that preserve the essence of the original piece.

Soundless (Revised)

My celestial dusk is earthward bound.
Evening clouds are not making a sound.
I cannot hear her moon shadows hit the ground,
and our silent night is being slowly drowned.
Then my midnight queen arises, to be crowned —
the Goddess of Light … and I am spellbound.

A soft companion piece, echoing the poem’s silence, carried on a gentle breath of light.

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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.

Universe of Light (a Tanka)

A heavy sky greeted us before breakfast, the clouds shifting and uncertain as we walked beneath the trees. Yet even in that muted light, something brighter seemed to stir behind the grey — a quiet reminder that beyond the darkness, a softer universe is always waiting to break through.

Universe of Light (a Tanka)

Above nature’s trees
Behind life’s wavering clouds
Beyond the darkness
There’s a universe of light
Waiting to caress your soul

Where the glow waits behind every wavering cloud.
Even here, the universe of light begins to open.