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
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
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.
If you post a link, be sure to read some of the other great writing people have linked to.
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
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
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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Over on Go Dog Go Cafe, my Throwback Friday poem is, ‘Secrets of Mine’
Today I am presenting a nostalgically insightful poem that I wrote in May 2018
Secrets of Mine
When I was ten and brave
I climbed our tree, a giant Peppercorn
Nearly midnight, and clambered stark naked
Maybe it was a full moon
When I was fourteen and timid
I quickly kissed the girl next door
Under a midday sun, bashfully red-faced
Maybe it was springtime
When I was seventeen, my voice had broken
I met a gorgeous schoolgirl
I’d walk her home, hand in hand, and in love
I shyly asked her to marry me
She was wiser than me, and said no
I was young and naïve
When I was twenty-six and carefree
I married the girl of my dreams
We needed shelter and a home
I went to the local bank for a loan
I lied to the manager and declared assets falsely
We moved into our house…
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I am not here to wait
For the world to finally rotate
Time for me is getting late
I am here to watch the grand parade
Eventually pass by my front gate
One day soon
After the next purple moon
Illuminates our children’s fearful tears
I will see those grandiose leaders
Calmly sit down together
On the peaceful banks
Of Lake Connewarre*
Connewarre; an Aboriginal word meaning ‘black swan’
Ivor Steven (c) February 2022
Featured Image Above: by Derrick Knight, who kindly allows me to reproduce his photos here on my poetry website …
A World Of Puppets (a Tanka)
Are we the puppets?
Punch and Judy’s without strings
Who’s contolling things?
As Putin’s a dummy too
Ask the children in Russia
Ivor Steven (c) February 2022
Hello readers and followers, you most welcome to participate in our new format 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” …by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article >>
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Autobiographical poetic prose accompanied by haiku.
Bruce Ross
In his old age Basho, who may be credited with establishing the haiku form, undertook a long journey to the remote regions of northern Japan, fully expecting to die before completing it. He did complete the journey, and his record of it has become a classic of world literature and an example, in the broadest sense, of haibun, autobiographical poetic prose accompanied by haiku.
– Journey to the Interior, American Versions of Haibun, Edited by Bruce Ross
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Featured Image Above: with the kind permission of Derrick Knight >> https://derrickjknight.com/
The ediditor of Red Wolf Journal, Irene Toh, is pleased to announce the release of the Spring 2022 Issue.
The poets with work in the A Change of World edition are:
Dmitry Blizniuk
Paul Brooke
Jeff Burt
Joe Cottonwood
CS Crowe
Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
Ron. Lavalette
Joan Mazza
Karla Linn Merrifield
Peter Mladinic
Misky
Larry Oakner
Frederick Pollack
Emalisa Rose
Timothy Resau
Rikki Santer
Emil Sinclair
Ivor Steven
Debi Swim
You may download a copy of the PDF release here.
A Change of World Spring 2022 Issue 20
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You’re invited to submit to our new issue, also titled A Change of World, Fall 2022 Edition. Read our submission guidelines here. Happy writing!
Irene Toh
Editor
Spring 2022 Edition
_____________________________________________________________________________________
A sincere thank you to the editor Irene, for considering two my of poems for her superb anthology “A Change Of World”
New Mushrooms
After the storm
Old boundaries were transformed
Fences were moved and torn
Fields smelled of rotting corn
Patient vultures remained airborne
Above the drowning longhorn’s
After the storm
I rested under the peppercorn
And I saw new mushrooms rise with the dawn
Ivor Steven (c) February 2022
