Ivor.Plumber/Poet

The Disappearance of Decency

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

Promote Yourself Mondays, March 7, 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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Go Dog Go Café

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.

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Tomorrow’s Shadows, (a Haiku)

A big thank you to David Repath and Timothy Price for jointly inspiring to write this Haiku, https://offcenternoteven.com/2022/03/05/ukrainian-daze/ and for Timothy’s stunning music/video

Tomorrow’s Shadows

Shadows of today

Precede tomorrow’s darkest clouds

Silhouettes of doom

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

The Gates of Hell Over Stolen Ground

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

Ivor Steven

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

I Write Her

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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Throwback Friday, Secrets of Mine, by Ivor Steven

Over on Go Dog Go Cafe, my Throwback Friday poem is, ‘Secrets of Mine’

Go Dog Go Café

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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Loaded Clouds, (a Senryu)

In the misty rain

Remembering heavy clouds

Loaded full of tears

Ivor Steven (c) March 2022

On The Banks of Lake Connewarre

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

A World Of Puppets (a Tanka)

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

Haibun Wednesday, March 2, 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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Go Dog Go Café

Welcome to Go Dog Go Cafe’s Haibun Wednesday!

What exactly is Haibun?

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

Writer’s guide…

Some things to keep in mind when writing haibun:

The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, and travel journal.
A haibun is a combination of prose and haiku.
The prose is brief and simple and usually written in the present tense.
The…

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