Over at Weekly Prompts the Weekend Challenge is the word: Key. You can visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here
I Found the Key in Shanghai
Will this be the key?
To my writer’s beehive
I am excited
Expectations are high
I am nervous
An unknown poetry guy
I am fully prepared
The tummy is full of humble pie
I am almost ready
Do I wear a black tie?
Or jeans, and a Leonard Cohen T-shirt
That I found in Shanghai
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
I am ecstatic that my poem “A Poet’s Grotto”, has been accepted and published in Spillwords Magazine today, and I am very grateful to the editor, Dagmara for selecting my piece … Please go over and visit my poem at Spillwords and if you wish, leave a “💖” for my article, by clicking on this link >> A Poet’s grotto, poetry by Ivor Steven at Spillwords.com
Please Note: featured image above, supplied by Spillwords Press
A Poet’s Grotto
My writer’s studio, is the littered part of my bedroom
A paper tiger’s haven, has become a messy grotto
I am ruefully feeling muddled and befuddled
Pieces of paper and cardboard kites
Scatter the atmosphere like withered autumn leaves
Falling upon my untidy and cluttered archives
Scribbled words are yet to be decoded
Foolscap pages overwritten and eroded
Undefined and unlisted
Out of focus and twisted
Upside down and inside out
Uncategorised and full of self-doubt
My desk, once a dreamy picture postcard
Looks like a moonscape’s junkyard
My poetic writing quill has been the mythological ruler
Showing no regard for my bedroom’s demeanour
I am sleeping covered in my hurdy gurdy verses
It is time to cull the pretentious cosmic curses
Free myself of all unpublished jabberwocky
And let my imagination create a new poetic hard copy
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
She Winked (a Haiku)
I am mesmerised
Her golden eye winked at me
She’s camera shy
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Watching Over Us (a Tanka)
I watched you depart
I knew it was your last flight
Life’s one way ticket
And now it’s my turn to wait
For time to arrest my soul
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Hello dear readers and followers, the Coffee House Writers Magazine had a 2 week break for the holiday season, but we are back, and I am again writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “The Unreachable Horizon”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. …
To Read my poem, please click on the link below to visit the article, at Coffee House Writers Magazine.
>> The Unreachable Horizon – Coffee House Writers
Music Video: Poets of the Fall, “Beyond The Horizon
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Great News. Yesterday I received an acceptance for my submission to Cadence: Life’s Poetic Rhythms, an upcoming anthology (for Spring 2024), from Prolific Pulse Press.
They’re open to “more submissions” until the 31st of January, so I encourage all my poet friends to offer the Editor, Lisa, some joyful poetry. Details via this link >> https://www.prolificpulse.com/
Featured Image Above: A photo collage of my “Flowers in the Sky”
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Over at Weekly Prompts, the Colour Challenge for January is: Purple . Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here
Please Note: All attached photos of ‘me’, were taken by, ‘my best friend’
My Lounge Suite (a Haiku), Written by, Frankie
Come sit beside me
Scratch my ear, and shake my paw
My home is your home
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Today’s Throwback poem was written when I was on a tour in China, and here we were in Beijing, at an ancient family home (500 years old) being entertained by the lady of the house playing traditional Chinese music on her antique Guzheng instrument.
“Zither”, was the winning Haiku in a Haiku competition run by Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, in November 2018
Nov 2, 2018. Editor, Brian Geiger. For those of you who didn’t know, I hosted an October haiku contest a couple weeks ago. I’m happy to reveal our winner: Submitted by Ivor Steven. Zither
Zither (a Haiku)
Chinese courtyard sounds
Guzheng music gently strums
Beijing alley hums
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Shadowed Ground
I look up and wonder why
The moon is fearfully hiding
In the fading twilight sky
As he forlornly looks down
Upon our shadowed ground
Knowing our King of Peace
Wears a shrouded crown
Dauðalogn Translation: “Calm of death”
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
A Summer Storm at the Cafe
The second day of the year
And our volatile summer is here
Things remain the same in our sphere
The morning was sunny and warm
But the day soon transforms
And the afternoon’s dark storm clouds
Were our thunderous shrouds
Frankie cuddles up near
As Thor’s hammer rings loud and clear
Video Below, Sigur Ros, performing a 3 minute section of their song “Von”, (which means “Hope”)
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) January 2024
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 