Peace – Page 3 – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Throwback Friday, Flying Bricks of War

Today I am presenting another poem that will be appearing in my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”. I wrote ‘Flying Bricks of War’ in May 2021, and the poem will be the opening piece in Chapter 6. War! Without Peace

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

Flying Bricks of War

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

Smashing innocent children and mothers

Flying bricks crumbling into dust

Creating dirty clouds of mistrust

The walls of Babylon fell again

As brick upon brick crushed human brains

Brick upon brick filled the bloody drains

Brick upon brick killed and maimed

Tullawalla is Available From

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Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) July 2023

Defying the Odds

Featured Images: were taken at the local Kindergarten, where the school’s gardener lovingly maintains the beautiful garden, and she excitedly pointed out that, despite it being the start of winter, there were 2 sunflower plants ‘defying the odds’. and actually thriving and blooming … I smiled at her joyful enthusiasm, however inwardly I was silently weeping for those still suffereing in wartorn Ukraine.
So here today I am reposting “5” of my “Sunflower” poems relating to the “Ukrainian” war.

We Are the Carrier Pigeons

Are our Sunflowers wilting?

Can they survive, prosper, and regrow?

They will need more

Genuine assistance

Our promissory words

And tuneless birdsongs

Are not enough

We cannot forget them

We all need to speak up

Let our world of voices be heard

Draft a poem, a letter

Of protest, today, tomorrow

We are the carrier pigeons

May our messages for peace

Chime over the people of Russia

Defiantly (a Haiku)

Sunflowers do bloom

Through the war of destruction

Bravely defiant

An Unseeded Renewal (a Tanka)

Sunflowers of peace

We have not forgotten you

The war has not stopped

Killing fields are still on fire

Young stems need help to survive

A Banner of Sunflowers

Bann
look!

up there

above the War’s

darkest clouds

there is a blue banner

embroided with sunflowers

swaying

through a hole

in the eastern sky

bearing a message

of ‘Hello’

or is it ‘Goodbye’?

a sweeping reminder

from our Ancestors

“we feel your suffering and pain

from the merciless hard rain

blood filled rivers and cratered plains

smoke filled skylines and cracked windowpanes”

“however, we also know

beyond the broken horizon

the sunflower seeds of hope

will germinate again

and future seeds for peace

will regenerate a new campaign“

Sunflower Seeds (a Tanka)

Blue skies were mellow

Fields were peaceful and yellow

Sunflowers grew free

Then foreign tanks squashed their seeds

On tomorrow’s scarred harrows

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Lullaby, (a Senryu)

Please Note: All above images (Except the one of Frankie), were by taken by Derrick Knight, and he kindly allows me to reproduce his wonderful photos here on my poetry website. If you wish, you may visit his fabulous Site via this link > https://derrickjknight.com/2023/05/17/baby-species/

Lullaby (a Senryu)

Sleep little ones, sleep

Our chaotic world will wait

Until eyes hear sound

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Between Lines, Who Holds the Power

Today’s post is a poem (Originally titled “Between the Lines”) that I revised/rehashed this morning … I might be wrong, but will I ever be right …

“And I have carried on this war. Though no one wins an endless fight. I have claimed that God has guided me. And killed to prove I’m right.” Lyrics From Damien Rice’s song, “What if I’m wrong”

Between Lines, Who Holds the Power

Do you see, a man walking on water?

Did you see, his feet were bleeding?

Do you read, the missing scriptures?

Did you read, your own family tree?

Do you hear, speechless angels singing?

Did you hear, the songbirds crying?

Do you feel, the erased wars calling?

Did you feel, the hard rains falling?

Do you know, the ones who are lying?

Did you know, the refugees are dying?

“What If I’m Wrong”, Lyrics, by Damien Rice

I could wrestle with tomorrow
Until tomorrow’s in the past
Because I have torn apart what’s beautiful
To prove that nothing lasts I have stayed locked behind these doors
To show there’s no way out
I got lost within the space between
The question and the doubt
I have built a wall between

What I believed and what is true
I have sacrificed the love I had
For power over you

I have convicted those who disagree
And walked over the weak
I have placed a gun within the mouth
Of those who dared to speak

And on an ordinary day
In an ordinary way
I have crushed the minds of children
With extraordinary shame

And I have carried on this war
Though no one wins an endless fight
I have claimed that God has guided me
And killed to prove I’m right

What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong

Is this soul worth saving at all?
Cause if I lose my wings then surely I must fall
And the gods prayed to the gods they made

We could wrestle with tomorrow
until tomorrow’s in the past
We could tear apart what’s beautiful
To prove that nothing lasts

We could stay locked behind the doors
To show there’s no way out
We could get lost within the space between
The question and the doubt

But what if we’re wrong?

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Today at Sunrise (a Tanka)

Please Note: All photos in my article today were taken by my cousin Maureen, and she kindly allowed me to reproduce them here on my poetry website.

Today at Sunrise (a Tanka)

Dawn on Anzac Day

My cousins are in Torquay

United they stand

Remembering their fathers

Peace they cry, “Lest We Forget”

Ivor Steven (c) 25th April 2023

Throwback Friday, Baby Vegetables and Puppy Dogs, by Ivor Steven

MARCH 24, 2023 / IVOR20 … Copied from my article on “Go Do Go Cafe” this morning. >> http://godoggocafe.com/2023/03/24/throwback-friday-baby-vegetables-and-puppy-dogs-by-ivor-steven/

Today I am presenting a poem I originally wrote in August 2019 …

Baby Vegetables and Puppy Dogs

We can climb the tallest peaks

Where there’s the purest thin air to breathe

Yet we still dispossess children of their rightful freedom

Bagging them in plastic like vegetables in a fridge

We can dive into the ocean’s deepest chasms

Where without artificial lights it’s too dark to see

Yet we still blindfold children from the solar daylight

Abandoning them at night like forgotten homeless dogs

We can fly to the furthermost planets

Where there’s a willingness to meet the unknown

Yet we still treat frightened children like Saturn’s aliens

Caging them like feral animals in a desert zoo

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) March 2023

Breath Taking

For Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Breathtaking

Breath Taking

Who’ll be left

To do the colouring in?

And breathe in the new oxygen?

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Perceptions-Ivor-Steven/dp/1387487302/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RD27PWFI9JPS&keywords=perceptions+by+ivor+steven&qid=1676894211&s=books&sprefix=Perceptions%2Cstripbooks%2C1174&sr=1-1

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

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OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) March 2023

Raspberry Cheesecake

Today the Wednesday Challenge on Weekly Prompts is: Neighbours. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here …
One of my nearby ‘Neighbours’ happens to be the “Moorabool Valley Chocolate Cafe”

Our table and my “treats” … Frankie getting his back patted.

Frankie waiting for his “treats” and waiting for me to finish this poem

Raspberry Cheesecake

The afternoon is warm and sunny

I say to Frankie

“We should go for a stroll”

He immediately runs to his lead

And eagerly shakes his head

Ok, we will go to the

Moorabool Valley Chocolate Cafe**

Excitedly, he scratches at the front door

He knows where we are heading

A special country-style venue

Close to home

Near the outskirts of town

Situated inside a horse agistment property

We settle for a table on the verandah

Frankie loves the attention he receives

I love the homemade cakes

My self-indulgent treats

Were a scrumptious raspberry cheesecake

And a delicious cappuccino

The Cafe Website: https://www.mooraboolvalleychocolate.com.au/virtual-tour

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) March 2023

Let Us Grow (a Memento), is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Let Us Grow (a Memento)”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/let-us-grow/

“The Great Gates Of Kiev”, Writer(s): Greg Lake, Keith Noel Emerson
How amazingly appropriate for todays world, written in 1971

Come forth, from love’s pyre
Born in life’s fire,
Born in life’s fire
Come forth, from love’s pyre
In the burning, of our yearning
For life to be
And in pain there will (must) be gain
New Life!

Stirring in salty streams
And dark hidden seams
Where the fossil sun gleams

They were, sent from (to) the gates
Ride the tides of fate
Ride the tides of fate
They were, sent from (to) the gates
In the burning of our yearning
For life to be

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2023

The World’s Crimes (a Tanka)

At Weekly Prompts the Wednesday Challenge is the word: BELONGING. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here. Below is my poem about how we all belong to this World, and we all want peace …

The World’s Crimes (a Tanka)

One line at a time

We shall persistently climb

Above the world’s crimes

That bears no reason or rhyme

For making the peace bells chime

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) January 2023