No need to dine out

I am living on life’s leftovers

And leaning on her vacant shoulder

The silence is deafening

But I hear soft sounds of violins

Gently echoing on my heart strings

They are humming the chords of our song

That momentary tune, from once upon a time

“Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to be like and enjoying it for everything that it is” — Mandy Hale


Let The Past Be Gone (Revised)


The end of December, and January is near

The bell tolls louder and how perennially I jeer

Those same old questions and no answers every year

Annually dismayed as old dawns disappear

Let the past be gone, now that today’s here

Let the future come, as I face tomorrows haunting fears

Last years sins have been but not totally gone

The new year’s about to begin, could be right or wrong

Next year’s eeriely hovering and I anxiously worry far too long

Knowingly waiting for my angels mourning song

“Let the past be gone.” declared todays final word

Let the future come, but tomorrow’s crying, I heard!

Ivor Steven (c) January 1st 2021

Two Thousand and Twenty: A Dual Haiku

Last year’s sins are gone

New year eerily hovers

Could be right or wrong

The bells toll louder

Perennially we jeer

Is there an answer

Featured Image: From, City Of Greater Geelong 2020 Calendar, photo by Edward, of Eastern Beach.

Ivor Steven (c)  Dec 30th 2020

Dreaming of midnight rainbows

Illuminating the night’s rowdy crows

And I am hearing a tune of fat raindrops

Splashing upon my iron rooftop

Softly landing like pieces of strawberry pavlova

Gently followed by slices of Christmas pudding

Smothered in warm custard and cream

Then I see my sweet tooth faerie

Conducting the Nutcracker Pantomime

Where their symphony and my illusions combine

Ivor Steven (c) December 2020

Afternoon Moonbeams



time beckons

second after second

years fly by

over sea and sky

love gleams

between moonbeams and sunbeams

love thrives

from beehive to beehive

life rebounds

in leaps and bounds

Ivor Steven (c) December 2020

Lisa Hannigan Lyrics

“Fall”

Hide your horses, hold your tongue
Hang the rich and spare the young
Who drain the spirits from the jars
Hop the fences, steal the cars
Run on fumes and from the north
And burn for us right through the fall

All the ladies call your name
Brush your hair like it could be tamed
Hitch their dresses past the knees
Spilling to the floor like ease
They swing the bridges one and more
And burn for us right through the fall

All our running ahead, all our running ahead
All our running ahead, all our running ahead

And we’ll seize the captain’s wheel
A mutiny we’ve come to feel
When will their aiming’s gone from view
With everything we thought to do
Oh, the devil won’t have me
I wonder who will, I wonder who will
All our running is a crawl
And burns for us right through the fall

All our running ahead, all our running ahead
All our running ahead, all our running ahead
All our running, all our running
All our running, all our running

Christmas day around our sphere

A new frontier of hope and cheer

Enough food to outlast the big freeze

Enough drink to buckle a camel at the knees

Miles of smiles returning from exile

After hurdling a season of rusty turnstiles

I’m heavy enough to sink like a stone

Light enough in the head to fly to the moon

Ivor Steven (c) December 2020