Throwback Friday, Within Us, by Ivor Steven

Love lives within us

My files indicate that the oldest entry for this poem was in April 2018, but I have a feeling the original might have been written a few years earlier.

Within Us

The oceans wave us goodbye

Sand and sea, one beach

Like the surf’s white crest

Love is within our lonely breasts

The lands push us apart

Alps and plains, one realm

Like a river’s rocky cascade

Love is a turbulent escapade

The sky opens us up

Dawn and dusk, one sun

Like the moons daytime eclipse

Love is a hidden apocalypse

The universe covers us complete

Stars and planets, one creation

Like the distant Milky Way

Love is within us to stay

Ivor Steven (c) April 2018

G’day, and welcome to my blog site. My name is Ivor Steven, I live in Geelong, Australia. I’m an ex-industrial chemist, and a retired plumber, and a former Carer of my wife(Carole)…

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Who’s Rowing My Boat in the Dark?

I’m reposting this poem of mine from August 2020, for two reasons. 1. The poem gives me a chance to present one of my favourite songs by Leonard Cohen. 2. I like this poem, because the piece is open for the reader to interpret my thoughts images in whatever way their feel is right for them.

Who’s Rowing My Boat in the Dark?

Am I in hibernation?

Or am I lacking inclination?

Am I awake and living?

Or just lying here dreaming?

Why do I dream so much?

Visions feel alive to touch

Half-awake, I scribble these notes

Half asleep, am I falsely afloat?

On my mystical Noah’s Ark

Have I the right to ask?

Who’s rowing my boat in the dark?

Is it Her, my brave Joan of Ark?

My Marathon’s Goal

The winter sun sets

Over my oldest day

I tick off another year

My sister reminds me

“Twenty years to go

to equal Dad’s Ninety-one”

“Is that achievable?”

I ask myself

“No harm in trying”

I tell myself

Carole’s Dad also reached Ninety-One

This is my marathon’s goal

“To walk around the moon

on my way to touching the stars”

Ivor Steven (c) July 20th 2022

Tullawalla #29, Today, Beside the Sea

Hello dear readers and followers, I am pleased to announce that I have managed to produce my “Twenty Nineth Tullawalla” Booklet … For new readers that don’t know about these booklets, they are basically the reason why I write poetry. I produce these ‘home-printed’ booklets for the sole purpose of raising funds for my favourite charity organisation, the MS Society, in Australia via the MS Charity Shop here in Geelong. And actually all money’s I receive for any of my poetry .via, submissions, I donate to the MS Society…. I’m proud to announce, that the sale of my “Tullawalla Booklets”, have now gone pass $1500.00, … to all the lovely readers, who have donated, to help achieve such a wonderful amount, a big heartfelt thank you, from “us” and the MS Society … …..Incredibly, there is now a total of “1255 poems”, Yep, well over “A Thousand Poems” in my collection/series of “29” Tullawalla Booklets. After 3 months, this booklet is finally completed, and ready for sale now !! As always, they are available for purchase, either as a hard copy ‘Booklet’, or a PDF format….. All proceeds go to the MS Charity Shop, here in Geelong West….. Please contact me here through my website page and I can chat to you about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla, Today, Beside the Sea”… And here is the link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com

Today, Beside the Sea

After I left the fish tank

I lived on a nearby riverbank

Close to the connected sea

I would look beyond the ocean

Out to the dark blue horizon

As far as the eye could see

That was the ocean

That was our river

And now her river has been set free

An ebb tide that flows through me

Today beside the sea

I wait here

For tomorrow’s horizon

To set me free

Ivor Steven (c) July 2022

Towards the Dark (my Nightmare)

A nightmarish hypothetical poem and some of the words are from comments I made on Bart’s and Sadje’s recent posts .. > https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2022/07/15/fraiku-first-lights/
.. > https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/07/13/one-liner-strength/

Featured Image: Photo from the JWST

Towards the Dark (my Nightmare)

One day soon

After mining the earth dry

There will no more rubies

No more diamonds in the sky

Will our silver spoons

Ever stop digging

Towards the dark side of our moon

Tonight, we do not need

Our world to be darker

We can learn to survive

When life teaches us

The value of being alive

Ivor Steven (c) July 2022

Promote Yourself Monday: July 18, 2022

Dear readers and followers, here’s a great opportunity for your writings to be read by other writers, and also to find and meet other writers. You are very welcome to participate, come along and visit our writer friendly site…..by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article >>
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Go Dog Go Café

Welcome toPromote Yourself Monday. All Go Dog Go Cafe community members are invited to postonelink to one specific piece of their writing (600 words or less please!) they have published on their blog, Facebook page, or Instagram feed into the comments section below.

If you post a link, be sure to read some of the other great writing people have linked to.

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Throwback Friday, A Single Weeping Tree (a Villanelle), by Ivor Steven

Here I am presenting my 2nd ‘Villanelle’ poem for the week, but the one is from 4 years ago

Go Dog Go Café

This Villanelle is from July 2018, was adapted from my 2011 poem “This Lost Shadow”, which I reposted on my site during the week >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2022/07/13/this-lost-shadow-a-10-year-celebration/

A Single Weeping Tree (AVillanelle)

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

Why am I so sleepy, am I ageing too quickly

I’m writing a book for a heart and soul gone cold

I’m so physically worn and mentally at sea

Why am I so anxious and lonely

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

I’m writing this song about my return to the fold

Why am I so sore, have I lost my plea

I’m writing a book for a heart and soul gone cold

I’m a furnace log, burning up with glee

I’m a sinking ship, all about to flee

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

I’m an overburdened camel, not to be told

I’m…

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This Lost Shadow, A “10” Year Celebration

Ten years ago my poem ‘This Lost Shadow‘ was accepted and published in the Literary Anthology, “Melpomene” . The poem was the first piece of mine to appear in a Published Book, and I was exceptionally proud to have my name in the authors list, along side the famous poets, Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and Paul Verlaine … Below, I have scanned my poem ‘This Lost Shadow’ directly from my copy of the book.

Featured Photo Above: Taken by Derrick Knight > derrickjknight – Ramblings

Melpomene

Gwendolyn Taunton (Editor)

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, drawing on literary traditions such as the ‘Damned Poets’, the Decadent Movement, Symbolism/Surrealism and the Fin de si cle. 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…

Ivor Steven (c) July 2022

Today, Beside the Sea. 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“Today, Beside the Sea”, is in this weeks edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers >>
https://coffeehousewriters.com/today-beside-the-sea/

Ivor Steven (c) July 2022

Her Everlasting Smile (a Villanelle)

Next Sunday at my monthly “Poetry Dome” meeting we are required to write a ‘Villanelle’ , and below is my attempt at the ‘Format’ … which I have adapted from an old favourite poem of mine, “Everlasting Smile”, you’ll find my original poem attached below the Villanelle …

Her Everlasting Smile (a Villanelle)

I wonder, was it all worthwhile

My chest, heavy as never before

Remembering, her everlasting smile

I look back, on her unfortunate life-style

Being unable to walk and talk anymore

I wonder, was it all worthwhile

I relive, her personal exile

My throat, swollen and sore

Remembering, her everlasting smile

I hesitate, retracing every mile

My tears, splash on the floor

I wonder, was it all worthwhile

I cringe, behind my happy profile

My heart, has forgotten how to roar

Remembering, her everlasting smile

I sleep alone, awaiting the next trial

My tongue, tired, needs to say more

I wonder, was it all worthwhile

Remembering, her everlasting smile

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Everlasting Smile

My eyes, narrowly cracked.
My cheeks, slightly etched.
I rest here, retracing every mile.
Remembering, your everlasting smile.

My lips, already dry.
My tongue, trying to say goodbye.
I wonder, was it all worthwhile.
Remembering, your loneliest smile.

My throat, lumpy and sore.
My chest, heavy as never before.
I look back, recalling your life-style.
Remembering, your younger smile.

My lungs, empty and tight.
My legs, weak and light.
I relive, your personal exile.
Remembering, your generous smile.

My head, spinning from fright.
My heart, deep and out of sight.
I sleep alone, crying like a child.
Remembering, your everlasting smile.

Ivor Steven (c) July 2022