A big thank you to the Editor: Barbara Leonhard, for accepting and publishing my poem “Anything is Everything” at MasticadoresUsa.
… … … …
To view my entire poem at MasticadoresUsa, please click on this link >> https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/05/19/anything-is-everything-by-ivor-steven/
Featured Image: by Jaesub Kim on Pixabay
Ivor Steven (c) May 2023
Forty-seven poets and writers with astute observations about living, emotions, and our world were featured online in The Short of It publication in 2022. The best of their thoughts fill the pages of this compilation. They will leave you with rich impressions, some providing mysteries to ponder but also many which speak deep truths. Each piece by the poets and writers presented in this collection shows us, with depth and succinctness, what was on their minds. Every one of their poems, as the title of this book suggests, brings to the surface their “reflections and revelations.”
A big thank you to Susi Bocks for editing and producing this outstanding Anthology, and I am proud to have been selected as one of many in a talented list of writers.
“The paperback version is available on Amazon.com NOW!! To get your copy, please CLICK THIS LINK! “
Here are my “Short” poetic entries in Anthology:
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 (c) April 2023
Hello dear readers and followers … Party Time is here, with the announcement Date for the Launch of my second Book “Perceptions” … A Collaboration of Derrick Knight’s Photos and my associated Ekphrastic Poems …
And here ‘again’ is Ingrid Wilson’s fabulous Book Review of “Perceptions” Please visit her wonderful site >> https://experimentsinfiction.com/
Perceptions is a cross-continental collaboration from poet Ivor Steven (Australia) and photographer Derrick J. Knight (United Kingdom). Here are dragons, faeries, foals and swans captured in verse and image, which complement one another perfectly. The images are predominantly of nature, and perhaps reflect humanity’s struggle to find a place within the natural world, in the ruins of so-called ‘progress’, as evinced by Ivor’s poem, ‘Mankind’s Dirty Hands:’
within nature’s naked forest
waiting for mankind’s dirty hands
to stop the desert sands
from ravaging the last strands
of what remains hanging over our land
The poems are a mixture of haiku, senryu and longer poems featuring Ivor’s trademark end-rhymes:
All the world is green
within my midday dream
please, do not disturb me
let me sleep, let me be – (from the poem, ‘There Will Be An Answer’)
Other contributors who deserve credit are Derrick’s wife, Jackie Knight, who has provided some excellent photography (I particularly like her images of birds) and of course, Ivor’s niece, Kerri Costello, who designed the cover, and linked the book to yet another continent (she lives in Philadelphia, USA).
The book (available from Lulu) is a fortuitous combination of verse and image. Despite his own advice to the contrary in the section ‘Do not quote me,’ I will end with what strikes me as a most pertinent quote from Ivor:
“A poet following a poet, gives you poetry in motion.”
It is a testament to the friendships formed on WordPress that these two artists have been able to collaborate successfully and bring this globe-spanning project to fruition!
Happy Reading,
Ingrid Wilson
Editor & Publisher, Experiment in Fiction (England)
“As a poet, sometimes we confuse ourselves, Trying to create ashes, instead of fire ” — Leonard Cohen
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) March 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Cracks and Holes”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to view my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/cracks-and-holes/
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) March 2023
This evening I celebrated “World Poetry Day” at a special event sponsored by Deakin University and Geelong Regional Library, which was held in the magnificent Geelong Library Building, featuring recitals from six exceptional poets, John Bartlett, Wendy Fleming, Rosemary Blake, Maria Takolander, Rachel Baxter, and Anne Elvey.
For World Poetry Day I am presenting a poem from my new book Perceptions – “A Soul’s Weary Retreat”, which I scanned directly from the book.
Video Below: Leonard Cohen reciting “A Thousand Kisses Deep”
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) March 2023
“In Need of a Wise Owl” is a poem from my book “Perceptions”, and I have scanned “page 4” directly out of my copy and reproduced it here, to give everyone an idea of how each page appears to the reader. The wonderful photos are by Derrick Knight (Southern England), and all have one of my Ekphrastic poems below the associated image. The fantastic cover artwork is by my amazingly talented niece Kerri (Bensalem, USA)
“Déjà Vu”. Lyrics by, Crosby Stills Nash & Young
One, two, three, four
If I had ever been here before
I would probably know just what to do, don’t you?
If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel
I would probably know just how to deal with all of you
And I feel like I’ve been here before
Feel like I’ve been here before
And you know it makes me wonder
What’s going on under the ground, hmm
Do you know? Don’t you wonder
What’s going on down under you?
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Perceptions-Ivor-Steven/dp/1387487302/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RD27PWFI9JPS&keywords=perceptions+by+ivor+steven&qid=1676894211&s=books&sprefix=Perceptions%2Cstripbooks%2C1174&sr=1-1
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) March 2023
Over on Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is the word: ENOUGH. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here …
Below, the Epigram “Dancing in the Rain” that I wrote in September 2022, has been selected for publication in the Australian Magazine “Positive Words”, thank you to the editor Sandra for considering my piece >>https://positivewordsmagazine.wordpress.com/ …
The poem is my first ever “Epigram” and to be published in this wonderful magazine is more than ENOUGH reward for my debut Epigram …
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:
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) February 2023
I am thrilled to announce that three of my poems were selected for publication in the prestigious Geelong Writers Inc. Annual Anthology, 2022, and I am honoured to have my words published in a journal along side a group of talented writers that I admire and who have mentored me for many years.
I have two poems, “Fragments Float, Tears Splash” and “The Disappearance Of Decency”, in the Poetry Chapter, and the other poem, “Love Is Not Declined”, is in the Romance Chapter
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:
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) December 2022
List night Geelong Writers Inc. launched the 2nd Issue of this year’s AnoMaly Street, Chapbook Publication (Poetry with a difference), and I am honoured to have my piece “Faerie Runnels” selected in this superbly produced journal. It’s always a great thrill for me to have my poems represented in a locally produced and published book. The Below Photo/Scan shows how my poem appears in the book.
“Faeries Runnels” also appears in new book “Perceptions”(page 41)
One of best Haiku, according to some of my fellow poets here in Geelong, which I penned in June 2020
Featured Photo Above: A painting by Carole Steven
One Land (a Haiku) Tullawalla, page 119
Upon our torn earth
Let’s sit around the camp fire
One circle of sand
Tullawalla is Available From;
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
Ivor Steven (c) November 2022
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 