Hello readers and followers, I am happy to say that I am home after my operation on my elbow and recovering well ..
Kissed By An Angel
According to ancient folklore
From foreign shores
I should be grateful
For being kissed on the cheeks by an angel
However, many moons ago
When I was a young beau
I had pimples in my dimples
Now I am old and single
My dimples look like moon craters
Full of freckles and wrinkles
Ivor Steven (c) November 2021
Hello readers and followers, today we are presenting something new from “Go Dog Go Cafe”, which is being organised by Donna Matthews, an interesting format of writing a “Haibun”, so read all about how to write a Haibun, and you are all welcome to join us at Go Dog Go Cafe, and post your articles here on “Haibun Wednesdays” …
If you’ve been around the cafe awhile, you might know that I was working through 100 Poetry Forms with the help of Robert Brewer at Writer’s Digest. But of late, I found myself struggling and not wanting to write. The forms were complicated and not at all what I wanted to be working on, so, last month, I decided to let the challenge go. This letting go is not something I do easily; instead, I tend to keep a death grip on things, doing more and more until I crash in exhaustion. The truth is, I’m still learning how to be a well-functioning human (at 51 😂), and each time we say yes to something, we say no to something else. By continuing the 100 Poetry Form challenge, I was saying no to learning and practicing…
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The words of this poem were inspired by comments that I left on Colleen’s and Donna’s post’s recently [ https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/ and https://www.djranch.org/ ], and the Featured Image Above, is one of Derrick Knight’s fabulous photos [ https://derrickjknight.com/ ] …
Time Watches Over Us
ours is not to reason why
for we are merely a fly
in the bigger sky
just passing by
however!
we do not stop learning
because every day
teaches us something new
and!
we cannot cease loving
because every day
our universe
creates something new
for us to love
yes!
the wheels of time
do not stop turning
and grandfather clocks
do not stop chiming
Ivor Steven (c) November 2021
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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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.
Ironically or coincidently, after re-posting several poems from my hospitalisation time three years ago … I suddenly found out that I am to be back in hospital for a short stay during the week … but I am only going up to level four, not that far from the ground floor, and within a short walk to the front door …
A Sudden Change of Plans
Early on Friday
I received a phone call
From the Geelong hospital
Informing me that my elective surgery
Was unexpectedly moved to be on next week
Then suddenly
Early this morning
Under the precautionary health guidelines
I was sent to be tested for the ‘Covid’ virus
And now I am in home isolation
For the next three days
Prior to my left elbow surgery
Early Wednesday morning
If everything goes according to plan
And all being well
I should be home
Early Wednesday evening
Ivor Steven (c) November 2021
On Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is: Fork In The Road , please go over and visit their fabulous site by clincking >> Here . The poem “Either Way” below is my response to their prompt
Either Way
At this point in time
Do you feel we have lost our way?
Our spinning world of rhyme
Is one big rotting orb of grime
Our life’s a journey
A climb up into the light
Or a fall into Hades
Either way, over time
Has existence become jaded?
We wait for a calming serenade
From above dark clouds full of pain
Us mere mortals need a different space
If our dreams are to ascend beyond this place
Ivor Steven (c) November 2021
Here is some writing prompts from ‘Brave & Reckless’ for December
For December, I look to book titles related to Christmas, the month of December, and Winter for inspiration.
The books that these prompts are drawn from represent many different voices and points of view. I hope that you find them as evocative as I do and that you will be intrigued enough to learn more about them.
There is only one rule to my prompt challenge: the poem or book title should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words of the title should be integrated into your piece somehow.
I LOVE posting your prompt responses on Brave & Reckless. I welcome your poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essay, and art. I will accept responses to any of December’s prompts on any day, but will not start publishing them on Brave & Reckless until December 1st.
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This Weeks Throwback Friday poem at “Go Dog Go Cafe” is “Lines To Nowhere” from November 2018
Over on my website, I have recently re-posted two of my older poems from a time three years ago, when I was beginning a three month stay in hospital. I was originally suffering from a “mystery” virus, and then I had a stroke, followed by another minor stroke. … Somehow I managed to write about that three month journey via my poems, and today I’m presenting a poem I wrote from my hospital bed during the second week of hospitalisation.
Lines To Nowhere
My curtains were opened
I saw a setting eclipse
And I decided to walk
To the south side of the moon
Taking my own spoon
I heard there’s a cheese-cake tasting
A sweet crumbly base
Topped with blueberries and cream
Life’s not about lying in bed
I’ll meet you for a kiss
After school
Down by the old pool
Ivor Steven (c) October 2018
G’day, and welcome…
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Today with this reblog, my hospitalisation story, in poems from three years ago continues …
Level Seven
I’m here on level seven
I might nearly see heaven
Suddenly the silent wall slaps me hard
With a soul shattering boom
My heart recites to me, her tune of doom
Comes crashing down on me
I’m crying remorseful tears
‘Twas her hospital for thirty years
We would always either be home or here
Backwards and forwards
Short visits, long stays
Inside out, upside down
Wounded hopes, broken dreams
Decades of her gracious courage, never undenied
Now I lay on her memories, here she died
Ivor Steven (c) 2018
This time three years ago, was the beginning of my three months is hospital, originally suffering from a “mystery” virus, and then I had a stroke, followed by another minor stroke. … Somehow I managed to write about that three month journey via my poems, and today I’m presenting the first poem I wrote from my hospital bed during that time …
I’m lying in bed, hallucinating
They’ve given me too many pain killers
Swimming between soaked sheets
In an ocean of hot sweat
I see a blue shark in my bed
Angrily circling me
That killers glint in his eyes
His giant jaws open wide
And he viciously bites me
Piercing my lower neck
And poking my left eye out
My blood is boiling on the red sea
If this is hell, please ring the bell
I shall pray to save my soul, and be set free
I’m swirling in drugs, I cannot think
My eyes are shut, I cannot blink
Where are you mum
I was always your number one
She’d make me my favourite cake
A passion-fruit sponge she’d bake
I sense a benevolent friend, if he’s not too late
Smuggling me a gun, past white guards, inside mum’s cake
To you who cannot see me, I’m an ancient fable
Who’s about to leave the table
With the rest of the disabled
I’ll look for you, in your higher stables
How can I find my way back?
I’ve lost my winding track
Life for me cannot be the same
I’m not recovering, I’m losing the game
Forgotten my name and where to aim
Destiny has me old and lame
Ivor Steven (c) November 2021
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 