Category: Poems

Throwback Friday, The Poet’s Grotto

Today’s Throwback poem is a rewrite of an old piece called “Paper Tigers” (Feb 2019)





The Poet’s Grotto


My writer’s studio, is the littered part of my bedroom

A paper tiger’s haven, has become a messy grotto

I am ruefully feeling muddled and befuddled

Pieces of paper and cardboard kites

Scatter the atmosphere like withered autumn leaves

Falling upon my untidy and cluttered archives


Scribbled words are yet to be decoded

Foolscap pages overwritten and eroded

Undefined and unlisted

Out of focus and twisted

Upside down and inside out

Uncategorized and full of self-doubt

My desk’s dreamy picture postcard

Looks like a moonscape’s junkyard


My poetic writing quill has been the mythological ruler

Showing no regard for my bedroom’s demeanour

I am sleeping covered in my hurdy gurdy verses

I cannot penetrate the stack of obscure foreign addresses

It is time to cast out the pretentious cosmic curses

Free myself of all unpublished jabberwocky

And let my imagination create a new poetic hard copy







Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Pushcart Nomination, for my short poem, “The Sum is One”

I Write Her
Thank you to the editor of “Reflections & Revelations”, Susi Bocks, for nominating me …


Announcing The 2022 Pushcart Nominees!

PUBLISHED ON 

It was wonderful to immerse myself again and fully digest the thoughts of all the pieces selected for the second volume of poetry of The Short of It in order to determine which works were to be nominated for this honour.

I am very happy to announce the following poets’ pieces were submitted to the Pushcart Prize Committee. Those selected were nominated for their contributions to the Reflections & Revelations—a collection of the best featured in the online publication.

Phantasma by Candice Louisa Daquin 

remembering by Jane Ayres 

The Sum is One by Ivor Steven  

Old News Is Not Old News by Joni Caggiano  

Winter’s Beauty by Lorraine Lewis 

Anxiety by Radhika Puttige 




My Poem: The Sum is One

The Sum is One (a Oddquain)

One

Sky above

Five oceans bind us

The one air we breathe comes from

Trees








Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

The Moon’s Midnight Demise 





The Moon’s Midnight Demise 


The eclipsing clouds unfolded lengthwise 

Masking the chastised moon’s demise 

Falling, ostracized and downsized 

Out of the mesmerized midnight sky 

The fading moonlight capsized 

And sunk into my tired eyes 


Was I to be finally baptized 

Or lying there, tranquillized 

Waiting to be mechanized and dehumanized  








Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  


Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Words Fly High in the Sky

Hello dear readers and followers, I’m Back … My brother fitted my new/repaired computer this afternoon after overcoming a number of WiFi connection problems. And I am still having trouble connecting my Scanner and Colour Printer … Yep, there’s plenty of ‘teething’ issues for me to get through … but I’ll eventually get all my devices and apps uploaded. As for reinstalling my document files, that is going to be quite a task for me … Tonight, I am busy preparing things for a Market stall tomorrow … If you are in Geelong, drop in and say Hello …


High in the sky, a Dragonfly and an Octopus Cloud




Words Fly High in the Sky (a Senryu)


Until eyes hear sound

Future skies and dragonflies

Hold our hopes and dreams






Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Throwback Friday, Untethered

Untethered

Today’s poem “Untethered”, is also an uncaptured piece that did not make the final list for the new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”… hmmm … and I always like to get away in my “Itmims” spacecraft …

Untethered

With my back against the setting sun

I will fly toward a placid place, not yet overrun

Where the ground is not made of buried heads and limbs

I will untether my sturdy spacecraft Itmims*

And traverse the universe to discover a new world

Another planet of wonderment, yet unfurled

Where rivers and oceans are crystal clear

And unmasked, I can breathe the atmosphere

Where flowering plains are home to sacred trees

And native fauna roam wild and free


*Itmims, Ivor’s time machine in micro space







Coming Soon




Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Greed Bleeds the Needy 




Greed Bleeds the Needy 


 
 
The senate agreed

to ignore the people’s needs 

“Let them grovel on their knees 

for the left-over hog seeds” 

then trust us indeed 

to deliver more feed 

from next year’s crop of duckweed 

after a new seed tax is decreed

not to be misread as more greed

the deed is government-guaranteed!









Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  

Deep and Deeper? (revised)

A poem I wrote back in April, a piece that did not make the final list in my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”, oh damn … maybe one for my next Book! … Anyhow, my poem seems appropriate for the world’s current happenings and dramatic events





Deep and Deeper?




while afloat, we keep seeking 

and building boats that keep leaking 

time sails by, and we keep weeping

I often wonder how deep

humanities knowledge is

yet unseen …

how deep are our oceans

yet unseen …

how deep is the universe

yet unseen …

how deep is humanities love

for one another

yet unseen …






Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  

Oh, No!

Oh, No! … Here in Australia, yesterday’s referendum, to give our First Nation’s people a ‘Voice’ in parliament was rejected … I think it’s a sad outcome for Australia, and I am feeling the hurt that my Aboriginal friends are experiencing today.


Oh, No!


Why cannot I be right?

Why is my right so wrong?

Why are the wrongs so strong?

How has racism become right?


Why does our blight?

Remain deaf dumb and blind!

Without any foresight!






Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Flying Bricks of War (again)

I am posting this poem “again” … there is War “again” … more innocent lives will be “Lost”
Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word, Lost … please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here

Featured Image Above: Gaza Strip border, Kibbutz Netiv Ha’Asara, Israel © Kai Wiendenhofer



Flying Bricks of War


There is a divisive brick wall

That stands harsh and tall

To stop people from breaking their fall


Then the leaders in ivory towers

Ceased talking about peace and flowers

And hurled bricks into that sandy strip

One brick after another brick

Flew from one side to the other

Smashing innocent children and mothers


Flying bricks crumbling into dust

Creating dirty clouds of mistrust


The walls of Babylon fell again

As brick upon brick crushed human brains


Brick upon brick filled the bloody drains

Brick upon brick killed and maimed







Ivor Steven (c) October 2023