Sprinting

Today was my first day as ‘Host’ of the “Sprints” segment over on Coffee House Writers Magazine, which I shall be doing three evenings a week, and during the initial 20 minute sprint session, I wrote this appropriate piece …

Sprinting


Here I am, at my age!

Awkwardly sprinting

Writing quickly into a twenty minute page

Adrenaline pumping

Dribbling words into an empty rain gauge

Heartbeat racing

Thoughts are flying out of an unlocked cage

Calmly panicking

Between memories of love and hidden rage






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Right or Wrong, It’s Your Song (Revised)

Today I read these incredible words on Colleen Brown’s “The Chatter Blog” site.

“Tho’ my voice maybe tuneless
Don’t discount my song
My song sings emotion – pitch perfect” … Faherty Brown

Here is the link to Colleen’s article >
https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/my-soul-sings/

And after reading her beautiful quote … a poem that I wrote back in May 2018, now appears to be more meaningful than what I originally thought my words were about.



Right or Wrong, It’s Your Song (Revised)


Who knows the words to your song

Who sings in tune to your song

Who is to say a song is right

Or a song is wrong


It is not their song

It is not my song

It is your song



Right or wrong

And we we all here for the same song

Let us all sing the song






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Haibun Wednesday, January 5, 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” …

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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


This week’s writer’s guide…

[Concerning Haiku] So to write a haiku means to write about how you feel at a certain moment in time even if you are writing it down sometime after…[a haiku] tries to present feelings through images that were part of an experience.
How to Haiku, Bruce…

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From the North (a Tanka)

Featured Image Above: Of the Kananaskis Mountains, Alberta, Canada (West of Calgary), taken by my uncle, Dick Meyer (Dec.), from August 1997 …


From The North




Winter will not die

Nor relinquish his title

Without a cold blast

Howling over frozen bones

Of ancestors who have passed






Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Promote Yourself Monday, January 3, 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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Promote yourself Mon

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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Mankind’s Dirty Hands

My poem today is based on a poetic ‘comment’ that I wrote on the “Chatter Blog’s” site, after reading her interesting article. For those who follow Colleen’s site, would agree that all of her posts are thought provoking and interesting, and you may visit her article by clicking on this link >> https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/hasnt-been-back/



Mankind’s Dirty Hands



I am an ancient oak tree

leaning against the prevailing breeze

the winds of time have shaped me

after blowing my disguise into the sea


now here I stand

a lifeless shadow

of leafless branches

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





Ivor Steven (c) January 2022

Throwback Friday, Today Brings Tomorrow, by Ivor Steven

Happy New Year to my “2350” followers around the world and to all the visitors to my site, from an amazing “244” different Countries …

ivor20's avatarGo Dog Go Café

Here is my New Year’s poem from January 2019, and I was convalescing at home recovering from my second stroke … little did I know, I was to going have my third stroke in four weeks time …

Today Brings Tomorrow

A new day has arisen

A new year’s ahead

A new beginning is born

Life may turn for the worse

Below loose rocks and tired verse

Or life could improve to be better

Accruing love letters and joining the jet-setters

I’ve months to grow healthier and stronger

Before my next dream becomes a reality

Ivor Steven (c) January 2019

G’day, and welcome to my blog site. My name is Ivor Steven, I live in Geelong, Australia. I’m an ex-industrial chemist, and a retired plumber, and a former Carer of my wife(Carole), for 30 years, who suffered from severe MS. I Write poetry about those personal thoughts, throughout and beyond…

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“In the Valley of Light”, is published in Vita Brevis’ new anthology

I’m proud to announce that my poem “In the Valley of Light”, has been published in the Anthology “Nothing Divine Dies”, a poetry anthology about Nature, produce by Vita Brevis Press, which is Volume III, in their successful series of Anthologies, and my sincere thanks go to the editor Brian for kindly considering my poem.

“Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

From a shaft of sunlight warming the kitchen floor to a lush forest by Walden pond, what is it about experiencing nature that pleases and fulfills us? In the third volume of the Vita Brevis Poetry Anthology,established and emerging poets from around the world show what nature means to them. This is nature poetry at its most precise and moving, continuing the long tradition of Transcendentalism, deciphering ourselves and the world that sustains us — with art.

You may purchase this outstanding Anthology via these links
>> Paperback (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737296519)
>> Ebook (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PDN3YGZ)



In the Valley of Light


The cold winds of change

Blow down from the mountain range

Gathering up lost souls estranged


Rescuing them from the forest of shadows

And release them into the sunny valleys of tomorrow


Where there is light, there is colour

Where there is colour, there is energy

Where there is energy, there is life





Ivor Steven (c) December 30th 2021