Promote Yourself Mondays, March 14, 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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Water-logged Boots

My poem ‘Water-logged Boots, was published at FREE VERSE REVOLUTION, in November 2019, and thank you to the editor Kristiana for her kind consideration of my piece…
And today on Weekly Prompts the Weekend Challenge is: Boots . Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here . Appropriately in response to their prompt, I have reposted this poem from 3 years ago.

Water-logged Boots

Yes, I am small in this overburdened world

But I flutter freely when unfurled

I could be a family picture collage

Or a tiny squirrel amongst the foliage

On his journey of ups and downs

Collecting and storing his acorns

The trick is to enjoy the ups

While the floodgates are shut

Sometimes I did nearly drown

Other times I floated upside down

During the many seasonal rains

I wondered if I would ever swim again

So then I pretended to write a biblical book

Ignorantly thinking no-one would ever look

Afterwards, I thought I could walk on water

Then my boots became water-logged

And if you need to walk a mile in my shoes

You will have to learn how to swim and sing the blues

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Throwback Friday, We Are Not Worthy, Nor Grand, by Ivor Steven

During our present horrific warring times, here is an appropriate old poem that I wrote many years ago

Go Dog Go Café

In my computer files, this poem was is recorded as being from June 2018, but the original piece was from years earlier, when my poems were stored in cardboard boxes on the bottom shelf of my bookcase.

We Are Not Worthy, Nor Grand

The Time-travellers have been and gone

Transcending the stars and beyond

Leaving us The message carved in stone

Obvious warnings, pointing the bone

“You are not worthy, nor grand

to care for Mother Earth’s beautiful land”

Decrying our humankind’s faults

Locking our world’s children in vaults

Poisoning our plants, rivers, and seas

Contaminating the air we breathe

Burning our forests

Vehicle fumes

Nuclear bombs

Rulers greed

Before we even feed

Our fellow-man

Slaughter upon slaughter

Like we’re lambs

Guns and bullets

Millions for every bloody stand

Like seeds in our hands

Not giving life, only death and sand

We are not worthy, nor grand

It’s time, to…

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Vultures Tell No Lies, is in the March Issue of Positive Words Magazine

I am pleased and proud to announce that my poem, “Vultures Tell No Lies” is published in the Positive Words Magazine, March Issue, and thank you to the Editor, Sandra, for selecting my poem… For further information about this fabulous Australian magazine, visit their site via this link > https://positivewordsmagazine.wordpress.com/
Attached below, I have scanned the poems directly from my copy of the Magazine

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Innocent Millipedes

Please Mr Shootin’ Putin

Do not roll your tanks of destruction

Over the innocent Mr & Mrs Millipede

Millipedes were the earliest animals to breathe air

And make the move from water to land

They date back 428 million years

Now people of the world cannot hold back their tears

Did you know Mr Shootin’ Putin

That Millipedes are fairly timid critters

Docile decomposers that live in the leaf litter

Of forests all over the world!

They aren’t flashy or fast

And they follow the motto

“Slow and steady wins the race”

Millipedes are peaceful

They don’t bite

They can’t sting

And they don’t have pincers to fight back

Please Mr Shootin’ Putin

Do not roll your tanks of destruction

Over the innocence of creation

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Red Lilies Under Broken Ground, is up at Coffee House Writers magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, as you may know, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Red Lilies Under Broken Ground”, 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/red-lilies-under-broken-ground/

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

The Disappearance of Decency

Introduction

Naked I stand before Him
Stripped of common decency
Debased, I kneel crying
Sad words fall like rain
Tanks are still rolling
Over the Ukraine
My Tanka’s are scrolling
Down their bloody drains

Tanka #1. Sad Sky

False words smudge old clouds
Gray clouds hang under sad sky
The sad sky decries
“Children are our butterflies
And please stop the warring lies”

Tanka #2. Broken Biscuits

Life is imperfect
Like broken war-time biscuits
Re-connection waits
Reconciliation stops
Life’s sweet shortbread’s unopened

Tanka #3. Abandoned

May the stormy winds
Calmly abate in Europe
And bring peace quickly
Do not forget the children
We cannot abandon them

Epilogue

Cover me
Give me beauty
Inspire me
Calm me
Save me
From that deadly bee
Above the Black Sea

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Promote Yourself Mondays, March 7, 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 >>
View Original Post…

Go Dog Go Café

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

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The Gates of Hell Over Stolen Ground

Do you feel the weight?

Of radio-active clouds

Hanging over stolen ground

Do you hear the birds singing?

Gone!

Is that peaceful sound

Do you hear warning sirens howl?

Resonating like old war songs

When bombs are guided into sacred ground

Fires from hell destroying beds and towns

Gone!

As ashen children wander over burnt ground

Home is a communal air-raid shelter

Where families fearfully huddle together underground

Above!

The torn loyalties of alien soldiers

Tread lightly and warily upon broken ground

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

Ivor Steven

A collection of my Haiku and short pieces will up at “The Short of It” new Anthology, which is to be published soon … A sincere thank you to the editor, Susi, for considering my poems

I Write Her

Facades

Wearing your best vest
Is not necessarily a truthful test
A facade for a restless chest

Again

Summer’s golden plains
And stormy rains
Erase winter stains

After Twilight

Starry, starry nights
Shine on, shine on bright
Please stay, please stay within sight

Earthquake

I feel the earth quake
Fracturing tears off my soul
Tremors from my heart

Hail

Hailstones, hard as nails
Falling frozen razor blades
Storm’s icy sharp balls

~~~

Ivor Steven was an Industrial Chemist, then a Plumber, now retired, and has been writing poetry for 19 years. His book Tullawalla was recently published in America. He has had numerous poems published in anthologies and online magazines. He is an active member of the Geelong Writers Inc. (Australia), he is a team member/barista with the online magazine Go Dog Go Cafe (America), and a writer with the Coffee House Writers magazine (America). You…

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