Category: Music

Sprinting

Today was my first day as ‘Host’ of the “Sprints” segment over on Coffee House Writers Magazine, which I shall be doing three evenings a week, and during the initial 20 minute sprint session, I wrote this appropriate piece …

Sprinting


Here I am, at my age!

Awkwardly sprinting

Writing quickly into a twenty minute page

Adrenaline pumping

Dribbling words into an empty rain gauge

Heartbeat racing

Thoughts are flying out of an unlocked cage

Calmly panicking

Between memories of love and hidden rage






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Right or Wrong, It’s Your Song (Revised)

Today I read these incredible words on Colleen Brown’s “The Chatter Blog” site.

“Tho’ my voice maybe tuneless
Don’t discount my song
My song sings emotion – pitch perfect” … Faherty Brown

Here is the link to Colleen’s article >
https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/my-soul-sings/

And after reading her beautiful quote … a poem that I wrote back in May 2018, now appears to be more meaningful than what I originally thought my words were about.



Right or Wrong, It’s Your Song (Revised)


Who knows the words to your song

Who sings in tune to your song

Who is to say a song is right

Or a song is wrong


It is not their song

It is not my song

It is your song



Right or wrong

And we we all here for the same song

Let us all sing the song






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

From the North (a Tanka)

Featured Image Above: Of the Kananaskis Mountains, Alberta, Canada (West of Calgary), taken by my uncle, Dick Meyer (Dec.), from August 1997 …


From The North




Winter will not die

Nor relinquish his title

Without a cold blast

Howling over frozen bones

Of ancestors who have passed






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Mankind’s Dirty Hands

My poem today is based on a poetic ‘comment’ that I wrote on the “Chatter Blog’s” site, after reading her interesting article. For those who follow Colleen’s site, would agree that all of her posts are thought provoking and interesting, and you may visit her article by clicking on this link >> https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/hasnt-been-back/



Mankind’s Dirty Hands



I am an ancient oak tree

leaning against the prevailing breeze

the winds of time have shaped me

after blowing my disguise into the sea


now here I stand

a lifeless shadow

of leafless branches

within nature’s naked forest

waiting for mankind’s dirty hands

to stop the desert sands

from ravaging the last strands

of what remains hanging over our land





Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

“In the Valley of Light”, is published in Vita Brevis’ new anthology

I’m proud to announce that my poem “In the Valley of Light”, has been published in the Anthology “Nothing Divine Dies”, a poetry anthology about Nature, produce by Vita Brevis Press, which is Volume III, in their successful series of Anthologies, and my sincere thanks go to the editor Brian for kindly considering my poem.

“Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

From a shaft of sunlight warming the kitchen floor to a lush forest by Walden pond, what is it about experiencing nature that pleases and fulfills us? In the third volume of the Vita Brevis Poetry Anthology,established and emerging poets from around the world show what nature means to them. This is nature poetry at its most precise and moving, continuing the long tradition of Transcendentalism, deciphering ourselves and the world that sustains us — with art.

You may purchase this outstanding Anthology via these links
>> Paperback (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737296519)
>> Ebook (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PDN3YGZ)



In the Valley of Light


The cold winds of change

Blow down from the mountain range

Gathering up lost souls estranged


Rescuing them from the forest of shadows

And release them into the sunny valleys of tomorrow


Where there is light, there is colour

Where there is colour, there is energy

Where there is energy, there is life





Ivor Steven (c) December 30th 2021

Dad’s Old Writing Desk





Dad’s Old Writing Desk


Typing words on my brother’s laptop

Sitting at my dad’s old writing desk


Here I am surrounded

By a magical sea of real friends

Who are smiling at my memories

Floating on moonlit walls

Glowing above the paintings

Created by my dream-time girl

Before she departed

This mystifying world





Ivor Steven (c) December 2021