Category: Photos

Throwback Friday, Lost and Found – or – There, Here, and Where?

Throwback Friday: Shadows Revisited. First shared in January 2025, this poem now finds its place as the opening to my upcoming collection, Time Hears No Sound.


The final proofreading of my upcoming poetry collection, Time Hears No Sound, is nearly complete. This weekend marks the last quiet read-through before I send it off to my editor and publisher (Judy). Meanwhile, my talented cover designer (Kerri) is crafting the book’s visual soul. There’s still a journey ahead, but everything is unfolding beautifully. Thank you for walking beside me.



Lost and Found – or – There, Here, and Where?

There
Lying on solid ground,
my shallow shadow wears no face
And utters no sound.

Here
My outline bears no carapace.

Where
On a graveside mound,
I see my darkness —
waiting to be found.







.


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 ©  November 2025

The Village Green (a Tanka)


“Then, contented with my state,
Where true pleasure may be seen,
Let me envy not the great,
On a cheerful village green.” … from “The Village Green”, a poem by Jane Taylor.



The Village Green (a Tanka)


There’s something calming
About watching birds flying
At the village green
Among the picnickers and
Through our springtime’s shady trees








Ivor Steven (c) November2025

A Warm and Wet Spring Day




A Warm and Wet Spring Day


Our ever-changing spring is here again.
We’ve been walking between affectionate raindrops,
dodging the refilling, familiar puddles,
and watching Mudlark’s waddle in the ponds

We’ve appreciated nature’s flirtatious ways
refreshing our frazzled faculties.






Ivor Steven ©  November 2025

“Restore Rapport”, is in this week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine edition.

Featured Image Above: Black-and-white photo of a street art mural depicting a tug-of-war between a Russian and Ukrainian soldier on a war memorial in Izyum, Ukraine. (Getty Images photo)




Hello, dear readers and followers. I write for Coffee House Writers magazine (USA) fortnightly, and my poem “Restore Rapport” is in this week’s edition.
Written in the quiet hours of early morning, Restore Rapport is a poetic protest against the machinery of war and the silence that surrounds it. Inspired by the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, this piece asks: Where is the understanding? What are innocent lives being sacrificed for?


“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” — Einstein

To read the poem, please click the link below to visit my Coffee House Writers Magazine article.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/restore-rapport/








.


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 ©  November 2025

Proofreading at the Cafe

“Time Hears No Sound”
Good news! I’ve completed the first draft of my manuscript and have begun the initial proofreading phase. I’m delighted to share that my previous editor and publisher, Judy Rankin, along with the talented cover designer and illustrator, Kerri Costello, have both agreed to join me on this new project. Their support means the world as I take this next step.

Manuscript Details: 189 poems, 177 pages, and 11,555 words.




Proofreading at the Cafe


There’s a manuscript in my knapsack,
Traveling along with every step I take
Proofreading is a necessary backtrack –
Page after page, in between coffee breaks,

Until the task is completed,
Even if I am feeling exhaustipated.





‘On the Nature of Daylight‘ by Max Richter — the kind of music I listen to while proofreading. Gentle, expansive, and quietly stirring, it helps me hear the silence between the words.




Ivor Steven (c) November 2025

Who’s Afraid?

Featured Image: This is evening’s Halloween Twilight Sky


This evening’s Halloween twilight sky


Sorry, no bats! But plenty of bird silhouettes in the Halloween sky …

A big thank you to Cheryl, the ‘Gulf Coast Poet’, for inspiring my whimsical poem.
>> What are You Afraid of? | Gulf Coast Poet



Who’s Afraid?


“Don’t be afraid”
It’s easier said than done
What about
The shady Everglades
And the deadly Nightshade
I, for one
Like my bats underdone








Ivor Steven (c) October 31st 2025

Throwback Friday, This Lost Shadow

Today’s Throwback Friday poem, ‘This Lost Shadow’, was my first-ever published poem, in the anthology ‘Melpomene’, edited by Gwendolyn Taunton. Melpomene is a collection of poetry, prose and short fiction named after the Greek Muse of Tragedy. The central theme of the anthology is the beauty found in sorrow and the darker sides of human nature. Melpomene is broken into four sections: Liber Veneficium (Book of Magic), Liber Maeroris (Book of Sorrow), Liber Fatum (Book of Fate), and Liber Mortuorum (Book of Death). Each section contains both new and classic literature dealing with these themes. Authors in this volume include Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Taunton, Azsacra Zarathustra, Math Jones, Bernardo Sena, J. Karl Bogartte, C. B. Liddell, James WF Roberts, Christopher Pankhurst, H. A. Cledones, Tamas Nagyatadi Horvath, L. Alexander Carle, Bill Noble, Marg Howlet, Ivor Steven and Gene Banyard. Containing works both old and new, Melpomene offers a prime selection of works on the melancholic side of existence, the transformational beauty of the esoteric, occult secrets hidden in verse, sorrow, doom and the inevitable grasp of death. Melpomene will haunt the reader with a dark and unearthly beauty that is both forbidden and forlorn… >> https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Melpomene+by+Gwendolyn+Taunton&crid=3KH5IGU638GFK&sprefix=melpomene+by+gwendolyn+taunton%2Caps%2C903&ref=nb_sb_noss




This Lost Shadow

I’m writing this song for my body and for my soul.
I’m singing this song, about my return from the cold.
Why am I so tired? Is sixty so old?
Why am I so sore? Have I been far too bold?
I’m physically worn out and mentally torn.
I’m so worried about my every waking dawn.
I’m thinking of this quiet life, for you and for me.
I’m wondering if this vigilant life is too hard for me.
I’m pondering if this tragic life shall continue to be.
And feeling this bonded life, drifting out to sea.

I’m writing these words for everyone to see.
I’m writing this book about a single weeping tree.
Why am I so sleepy? Am I aging too quickly?
Why am I so sad? Who is looking after me?
I’m this furnace log, burning up with glee.
I’m this sinking boat, all about to flee.
I’m this overburdened camel, or a donkey maybe.
I’m this empty desert, a void, far as the eye can see.
I’m this broken branch, withering and dying, oh so slowly.
I’m this lost shadow, wandering this barren land furtively.






Ivor Steven (c) October 2025