Morning Tea With Dad’s Orchids

Dawn’s spring-time sunshine bathes me

Relaxing here under my verandah tree

Sipping on lemon and ginger tea

Watching a busy working honey-bee

Dad’s annual orchids are blooming

The flowers are glowing and beaming

I hear their spirit-bird songs swooning

Good morning dad, mum, and my girl, our day’s booming

Xavier Rudd, Lyrics

“Follow The Sun”

Follow, follow the sun
And which way the wind blows
When this day is done
Breathe, breathe in the air
Set your intentions
Dream with care
Tomorrow’s a new day for everyone
A brand new moon and brand new sun

So follow, follow the sun
The direction of the birds
The direction of love
Breathe, breathe in the air
Cherish this moment
Cherish this breath
Tomorrow’s a new day for everyone
A brand new moon, brand new sun

When you feel life coming down on you like a heavy weight
When you feel this crazy society adding to the strain
Take a stroll to the nearest water’s edge, remember your place
Many moons have risen and fallen long, long before you came
So which way is the wind blowing
What does your heart say

So follow, follow the sun
And which way the wind blows
When this day is done

Tunnel Echos

I’m lying here on the floor, prone again

Pining in vain

Listening to Leonard’s ballads again

Flooding my soul in rain

There’s happy dreams

And shattered dreams

All flying by

Passing under yesterday’s indoor sky

Here today, where’s tomorrow

Drifting through clouds of sorrow

My tunnel visions are echoing

Like rusty train wheels, loudly resonating

I’m my old verandah door, swinging

Badly hinged, my feelings are hanging

Knowing I’m a lonely alien widower

Untouchable, like a Hindu follower

Caresses by wandering hands, shunned and cropped

Wondering why my foreign heart suddenly stopped.

Today

Here is a dual Haiku I’ve written this morning, and if anyone knows what this sort of Haiku format is called, please let me know.

Today

I walk past today

Remembering yesterday

Gone is tomorrow

Today my earth blooms

Yesterday is forgotten

Tomorrow I weep

Ivor Steven (c)

Tullawalla And A Dragonfly

Weekly Prompt: Photo prompt for this week, Right Place Right Time

I’m presenting pictures here of “My Home”, and feeling incredibly fortunate, that I happened to be in the right place at the right time, two years ago, when I was lucky enough to find this little abode for sale. And on inspection I immediately feel in love with the place, knowing that this is where my soul could finally be at peace, and I came to engross myself in this writers haven that I had dreamt of, and knowing that it was now going to become a reality. Thank you to Linda, of Spiritual Dragonfly, for inspiring to do this post about “My Place”, and I hope all is well there for Linda over in Carolina, after coping with Hurricane Florence.

Above, my verandah area, my gallery, and where the old family home name, “Tullawalla” sign, is now proudly on display.

Above, My fernery, my garden courtyard, and more of my verandah gallery.

Above. More of my gallery under the verandah, and my barbeque and my outdoor speakers, which are wired back to my computer sound system, I hope the neighbours appreciate my music choices

Above. My home, front view, window garden bed and my garage. The writers bedroom and studio/desk area, is where all the poems are written. And attached below a lovely song from Xavier Rudd… “Home”

It’ll Be Alright In The Long Run

I’m going to bed soon, I’ve been battling, fighting, struggling, with my computer all day, and finally, hopefully, that the cyber-space gods are with me, and that my computer might be going again in the morning. Time will tell, I’m sure “It’ll Be Alright In The Long Run”… Redgum. I hope you enjoy their song and lyrics

Redgum: The Long Run, – Lyrics

Oh You look out your window at the cold grey dawn
It’s seven o’clock on a Monday morning
Pour a cup of coffee, better make it a strong one
Weather man on the radio says
It’s going to rain and it’s going to blow
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
Australia marched out of Vietnam
Out on the streets against Uncle Sam,
We won the fight, it was a long one
Uranium demo the other day
One of my mates got dragged away
As they slammed the door I heard her say
It’ll be all right in the long run
Italian bloke who works with me
And we swap laughs and company
And he slapped me on the back
Said “Your wrong, son
This isn’t the land I was told it would be
It’s not so equal and not so free”
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right

It’ll be all right in the long run
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
From the shadow of history a convict screams
The shearers curse, the people dream
We’ve taken some right turns
They’ve been the wrong ones
Troop ships leave and the headlines blaze
Australia remembers happier days
Faith lives on within the haze
It’ll be all right in the long run
So you sit in your camp and you stare at the fire
The doubts drop away as the hopes get higher
And you sing to yourself
It’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
And the sun gives ground to a long cold night
Screw your courage for another night
But you know in your heart
It’ll be all right
It’ll be all right in the long run
And the sun streams in with power and might
And you look at your kids in a different light
And you know in your heart as you kiss them goodnight
It’ll be all right in the long run

This song is from the album “Caught In The Act” and “Virgin Ground”.

Goodnight

Goodnight Carole, our Anniversary Day was a fine affair, and here’s a song for you, just a gorgeous Australian ballad, it’s 12.40am, time to rest our weary bones, listen to some pleasant music for our bedtime dreams, enjoy, I’ll see you later on…….

Redgum – So Goodbye Lyrics

I loved your home at Springfield

And your chauffer-drive Jag
But the afternoons at the yaucht squadron
Rally are a drag
Your country home at Aldgate
Your horses and your friends
The alcoholic sunsets, the pleasure never ends
I’ve just begun to notice the cold steel in your eyes
So I say to you goodbye
As she goes on asking why

I’ve spoken to your father he’s a self made millionaire
Do you know where his factories are?
Do you know who lives there?
In squashy little red-brick houses far away from here.
They’re ugly and they’re all the same
The neighbours live so near
The way my famliy’s living there you’d not believe your eyes
So I say to you goodbye
As she goes on asking why

Your brother’s learning how to drive the jag in your back yard
Your father sits and tells me about how he’s worked so hard
Your mother’s introducting me with patronising grace
To all her bridge friends in the salon, little cakes and lace
My mothers working nightshift now, she’s working till she dies
So I say to you goodbye, as she goes on asking why

Your fathers firm owns factories not far from where we stay
The chimneys spewing thick black smoke
Across the night and day
The people live and work down there underneath that cloud of smog
The kids’ backyards are small and bare, too small to keep a dog
Dont tell me that they like it there, thats certainly a lie
So I say to you goodbye
As she goes on asking why

Please dont cry, you’ll find a lover very soon I’m sure
A Gentleman who’ll bring you roses
And lay them at your door
It’s not because your rich but ’cause
Your not prepared to think
The higher daddy rises, the more his workers sink
You won’t wake up in time my lady
You wont realize
So I say to you goodbye
AS she goes on asking why
So I say goodbye.

Tullawalla: Booklet #5

Hello dear readers, friends, family and followers. Sorry I’ve not been around to all my fellow bloggers on WP, with my usual diligence and zest. I’ve been very busy preparing my new booklet of poems. And in honour of my dear Carole, on this our Anniversary Day (42nd), I’ve just finished the manuscript (Phew and yeah !!), and this one is called, “Tullawalla: “Home Is The Air I Breathe”, and of course along with the other 4 booklets, all money’s that I make from the sale of these booklets goes to the Geelong MS Charity Shop. The list of my 5 booklets is below. These booklets are all printed here in my little writing studio/haven, put together by hand, and they’re a foolscap size folder of 21 pages and 40 poems in each booklet

Tullawalla, Poems, By Ivor Steven Tullawalla, A Sign Of The Times Tullawalla, The Waves Say Goodbye Tullawalla, Who’s Left To Row The Boat

And, Tullawalla, Home Is The Air I Breathe

And I’m happy to say that I’ve now learnt how to print on both sides of the pages, thus halving my mailing costs for anyone interested in purchasing, for the price of postage and plus a donation for the MS shop. I have a PayPal account, to make payments easier.

Contents #5

Cheers

From Ivor xx

Some Time Now

Anniversaries, they come and they go.

Some time now, since that final May snow.

Anniversaries, they have floated past,

Some time now, I reminisce the last.

Anniversaries, none ever forgotten.

Some time now, since your everlasting smile was taken,

Anniversaries, from coral, to every hue.

Some time now, since our tidal-wave passed through.

Anniversaries, when love grew stronger,

Some time now, since the years became longer,

Anniversaries, a journey of love, suffering and pain.

Some time now, since our river filled with rain.

Your troubles fell with an Autumn leaf.

Forever enshrined within your gracious belief.

Scots Of The Riverina

John Schumann’s(Formerly Redgum) Vagabond Crew at Woodford 2010, performing Scots Of The Riverina, from the Henry Lawson poem, complete with blistering solos from Hugh McDonald on guitar and Alex (Alexander Stuart) Black on violin. Scots of the Riverina is a 1917 Australian bush poem by Henry Lawson. It relates the story of a boy who left his home in Riverina and is shunned by his family … .. The above Featured Imaged is of the Paddle-steamer EmmyLou on the Murray River, at Port Echuca, north Victoria.

John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew – Scots of the Riverina Lyrics

The boy ran away to the city from his home at harvest time
They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime
The old man burned his letter, the first and last he burned
And he scratched his name from the Bible when the old girl’s back was turned

A year went past and another, and the fruit went down the line
They heard the boy had enlisted, but the old man made no sign
His name must never be mentioned on the farm by Gundagai –
They were Scots of the Riverina with ever the kirk hard by

The boy came home on his “final” and the township bonfire burned
His mother’s arms were about him, but the old man’s back was turned
The daughters begged for pardon till the old man raised his hand
A Scot of the Riverina who was hard to understand

The boy was killed in Flanders, where the bravest heroes die
There were tears at the Grahame homestead and grief in Gundagai
But the old man ploughed at daybreak and the old man ploughed till the mirk –
There were furrows of pain in the orchard while his housefolk went to the kirk

The hurricane lamp in the rafters dimly and dimly burned
And the old man died at the table when the old girl’s back was turned
Face down with his bare arms folded he sank with his wild grey hair
Outspread o’er the family Bible was a name re-written there.

Hills And Hollows

Good morning dear readers, today’s poem is one I wrote on my phone while I was lying in bed early this morning, half asleep or half awake, answering a few of my readers comments. I would like to sincerely thank Kate of Calmkate – aroused, for inspiring me to write this piece, despite me being in a state of dreamy slumber.

Hills And Hollows

I’m a sprightly sparrow

I don’t like to wallow

Come fly with me tomorrow

Above the hills and hollows

I’ll swim the river of sorrow

Walk through fields of green and yellow

Pushing my old empty barrow

Full of my memories to follow

Looking for her golden halo

Somewhere over the rainbow