Poems – Page 38 – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Throwback Friday, The Closing Chapter

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is from October 2022, and I wrote it to signify the announcement that “Tullawalla #31” was to be the final publication in my series of “Tullawalla” Booklets.
The poem appears in my book, Until Eyes Hear Sound, Chapter 8, page 120.

The above Images are of my, bedroom bookshelves, loungeroom bookcase, and bedside table of books.

The Closing Chapter

After the first page was turned
The saga progressed slowly
Unopened books were lost
Unused words were found
New novels had to be read
The search for more
Went on, and on

Adventure volumes were added
Library expansion soared upwards
Higher than fiction could fly
Fluttering beyond
The ladder’s last rung
Where the quest for more
Was out of reach
And the tale of uncharted possibility
Remained the unfinished story
Of the final chapter

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

Mudlarks Are Whimsical Duet Singers (a Tanka)

Duet Singing. Magpie-larks are one of the 200-odd species of birds around the world that are known to sing in duets. Each partner produces about one note a second, but a half-second apart, so humans find it difficult to tell that there are actually two birds singing, not one.

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is the word Whimsical. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here.

Mudlarks Are Whimsical Duet Singers

The Magpie Lark is
Unique to Australia
A small singing bird
With striking black and white plumes
Our sopranos of the sky

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

Under a Clear Blue Sky, I’m Thinking of You (Happy Birthday Dad)

Alex Steven (Dad), February 5th 1924 – July 3rd 2015

Under a Clear Blue Sky, I’m Thinking of You
(Happy Birthday Dad)

One hundred and one years ago
When the summer sun
Arose for you
Did the afternoon moon?
Shine on you too

Ivor Steven (c) February 5th 2025

To Find a Shady Spot

To Find a Shady Spot

Walking from one shady spot
To the next shady spot
Via the street’s shopfront verandahs
We arrive at our favourite Cafe
Where the staff gives us a welcoming wave

Outside, the blazing sun is wickedly hot
Inside, beneath the fan, in a shady spot
The open porch area remains hot
Although a caressing sea breeze
Is beginning to cool our lot

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

The Sky’s Silver Screen

The Sky’s Silver Screen

The storm’s bulging darkness
Has burst it’s bubble
Lashing me with fat drops
And sharp pieces of white rubble

Meanwhile
Low in the gloomy twilight sky
I see the sun’s Venetian slats of light
Develop into a radiant rainbow
Over the cloud’s crying eye

Then startlingly
The illustrious rain beans
Began to perform like glitzy stars
Dancing across the sky’s silver screen

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

Shangri La, Volume 12. Resuming the Climb

FREE PDF COPY >>> Links Below

Hello, dear readers and followers. As you might know, I stopped producing my “Tullawalla Booklets” at # 31 because that was the house number of our family’s Tullawalla Homestead.
But the booklet formats are a superb way for me to catalogue the vast number of poems I produce and as the saying goes “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, called “Shangri La” which is the name of my little Villa, and is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
I now have “1901” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
(on my bookshelf I have “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, which contains 1775 poems … when I first started writing poems, I never envisaged that I would produce so many poems)

Click on >> HERE for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 12, Resuming the Climb
OR …
Click on this link >> Shangri La, Volume 12, Resuming the Climb.pdf

Resuming the Climb

From beyond the grand universe of mime
The eternal wings of time
Embraced the muse of my rhymes
Rewinding my heartstrings’ chime

Words cascade onto my blue lines
And valiantly my soul resumes the climb

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

“We Were the Last Mohicans”

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Colour Challenge for February is Green. To visit their fabulous site, please click on >> Here.
Hmmm, no green words in my poem, but there was a showy “Green” succulent plant under the cafe’s verandah

“We Were the Last Mohicans”

Saturday at the Cafe
It’s not as hot as Helios
But the mid-summer sun
Is flexing his Solar Plexus
I’m sweating
And Frankie is panting

The open verandah is shady
With an occasional zephyr
Wafting over our table
Refreshing enough
To keep us comfortable
Pleasant enough
To allow me the energy
To write these casual words

Mid-afternoon
The cafe’s patrons
Are gradually departing
And we are the last Mohicans

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

A Blade of Light

Please Note the featured photo and attached photos above are taken from Street Art in the Geelong CBD

A Blade of Light

Far beyond my darkest night
Clambering out of purgatory’s deepest void
I grasp onto a single blade of light
On the edge of my soulless asteroid
Who rescues me from Armageddon’s endless fight

Awaking in a pool of sweat, just after midnight
This meaningless nightmare gave me a hellish fright

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

Throwback Friday, Playing Cards

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is from January 2021, and it was a piece that I had forgotten about, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the poem while searching my files this morning.

Playing Cards

To many questions
And I do not have the answers
I am running out of rhyme
Is it time?
To go back to school
Me, a forgetful old fool
Or, I could stay here
Wait for the anteater to cheer
Sit in my garden courtyard
Avoid soul searching and just play cards
With Oscar the wise old owl
And Phillip the penguin, he’s my pal

Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)

Perceptions:

Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)

Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books

OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) January 2025

My Words Are No Longer, “Invisible Miracles”

Today I received the most wonderful news, that my book “Until Eyes Eyes Hear” has been accepted by the Geelong Regional Library, and will soon be available on the Library’s bookshelves. A big thank you to Pete, the Collection Support & Information Services Officer at the Geelong Library, for accepting my book.
This publication now follows in the footsteps of my first two books at the Library, “Tullawalla” and “Perceptions”. I know Dad and Mum would be proud of my achievements, and that my Dear Carole would be crying tears of “Liquid Joy” for me. …

Invisible Miracles (Until Eyes Hear Sound, page 95)

I am neither black nor white
I am not day nor night
I am neither sand nor sea
I am not a flower or a bee
I am not wrong or right
I am not heavy or light

I am Clear and free
I am a cool ocean breeze
I am a song we breathe
I am the air from our trees
I am a star above your grave
I am a shy sound wave

I can be brave
I am your invisible slave

When I began writing (scribbling) poetry 23 years ago, not long after my first stroke, Leonard Cohen’s music and poetic lyrics had a huge influence on the emotions behind my words, and his song that I have attached below, “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong”, still evokes my heart every time I listen to the incredibly beautiful lyrics.