Category: Peace

Horses for Courses

The world is a pool of people, some are sick, some are poor, some want more, and some are at war … The Featured Image Above: by Derrick Knight, and thank you to Derrick for letting me use his photo here …

Horses for Courses


there is something about the freedom of horses

beyond green pastures and steeple courses


there is something about the purity of life’s sources

from the snowy mountains down the river courses


there is something about the madness of wartime choices

beyond bloodstained lands of the killing forces


there is something about death’s silent voices

riding in wooden coffins down the hearse’s brief courses





Ivor Steven (c) May 2021

Flying Bricks

Featured ImageAbove: Gaza Strip border, Kibbutz Netiv Ha’Asara, Israel © Kai Wiendenhofer


Flying Bricks


There is a divisive brick wall

That stands harsh and tall

To stop people breaking their fall


Then the leaders in ivory towers

Ceased talking about peace and flowers

And hurled bricks into that sandy strip

One brick after another brick

Flew from one side to the other

Crashing innocent children and mothers


Flying bricks crumbling to dust

Creating dirty clouds of mistrust


The walls of Babylon fall again

As brick upon brick adds to the strain

Brick upon brick fills the bloody drains

Brick upon brick kills and maims







Ivor Steven (c) May 2021

A Line in the Sand (Revised)

Here I have revised yesterday’s poem ‘A Line in the Sand’ … by adding a stanza at the start, and a change to the final line … I’m not sure, but maybe the alterations are Ok…

A Line in the Sand (Revised)


Did you hear the latest hocus pocus?

About the world’s leaders lack of focus

And resembling old smokeless dragons

Can you sense the reloading of guns and cannons?


In my mind, I am searching for the olive tree

Please come walk with me

We will go to the seashore

And watch the dove’s soar


Hold my other hand

As I scribe a line in the sand


A message to the sky

Love and peace I decry

Will I receive an honest reply?

Or nothing, but more blind eyes?




Ivor Steven (c) April 2021

A White Wall, Whiter Than White (Re-whitewashed)

This Weekend on Weekly Prompts, it’s their first Colour Challenge of 2021 and appropriately they have chosen the colour: White. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here. My poem is a “Re-Whitewash from 2 years ago..

A White Wall, Whiter Than White

I’m lying here in my white-walled bedroom

My body’s been feeling white-hot

The white ceiling fan is cooling me down

Laying under only white sheets

Covering my white skin

This is not the White House

I don’t lie that much

I’ve not white false hair

So my white halo stays on

Without looking like a silly clown

Outside, my great side wall is white

The back courtyard is safe and secure

No non-whites can’t get in or out

Unless they desperately needed to

The great backyard wall

May be easily scaled

With a sturdy white ladder

I’m trumped, here in Australia

Walls don’t even keep out the flies

I’ve been reading my history books

The white walls built in the past

They have never lasted

Over they climbed

Or under they crawled

The walls were eaten by dust mites

Resilient as a feather duster

And pulled down by liberators, in disdain and shame

Ivor Steve (c)  2019

The Quill and Self-will


Tired eyes slowly open

The room is blurrily sloping

My lips are numb and dry

And I cannot see the sky



Three weeks I’ve been here

While my body is in recovery

Nurses say I’ll soon be out of this wheelchair

And I’ll be home with community health care



How will I cope I despair

My arm is idle and I cannot weight bear

And my speech is impaired

With a memory drifting in mid-air

I am unable to read or write

And daytime may as well be midnight



Three months have passed by

I am doing a morning crossword and my smile begins to cry

But there is a knowing sparkle in my eye

Upon my notepad I’ve scrawled lines of rhyme awry



Ivor Steven (c) Nov 2020

Faerie Pantomime


Mid morning and here comes the sun

The Wala* goddess smiles on everyone

Enriching the bloody goodness in our veins

And saturating our skin when the sky rains



Is your blood the same colour as mine?

Does your skin drip-dry under the same sunshine?

Are your dreams moonbeam snippets of time?

Do you imagine the world to be a faerie’s pantomime?

And we the audience, laughing at their mystical rhymes

Together dancing and ringing the city’s peace chimes




*Wala: Aboriginal mythical sun goddess.




Ivor Steven (c) October 2020

Faerie Pantomime

This week’s Wednesday Challenge on Weekly Prompts is, Badly Cropped. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here . Below is my abstract response to the prompt… Where I ‘Imagine’ the world has been “Badly Cropped” in recent times..


Faerie Pantomime

Mid morning and here comes the sun

The Wala* goddess smiles on everyone

Enriching the bloody goodness in our veins

And saturating our skin when the sky rains



Is your blood the same colour as mine?

Does your skin drip-dry under the same sunshine?

Are your dreams moonbeam snippets of time?

Do you imagine the world to be a faerie’s pantomime?

And we the audience, laughing at their mystical rhymes

Together dancing and ringing the city’s peace chimes





*Wala: Aboriginal mythical solar goddess.


Ivor Steven (c) October 2020