Nature’s shadowed eyes
Black storm spirits of the sky
May we all survive
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
Nature’s shadowed eyes
Black storm spirits of the sky
May we all survive
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
This week’s Wednesday Challenge on the “Weekly Prompts” site is the word BOUNDARIES. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >>HERE . Below is my poem about the biggest social boundary every put in place on this planet !!
Sage Bush At Guard Tower Twelve
I’ve been on the run for weeks
Heading towards the Great Wall
From atop this steep hill
My nose tells me, I’m close
And I smell that distinctive sage aroma
Knowing, the sage bush is nearby
Below the gateway to guard tower twelve
My old bones shake and shiver
The Mongolians are closing quickly
Spears and arrows aquiver
Fear grips me, and I crawl low
Fingers grasping this granite boundary
Block after block, of the giant blockade
Frightened, I’m too scared to fall
Onto those deadly steel blades
And cold rugged rocks below
I clamber higher, step after step
Finally there above, I see my wish
The flowering sage bush
Mauve blooms bowing in the breeze
My chest sighs and heaves
I clear my lungs, and scream
Soon I’ll be free, as I see
Near the sage bush at guard tower twelve
The Emperor’s warriors, my reprieve
Saved, I fill the Royal message bag with sage leaves
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020.
Time moves pass, This Lost Shadow
Words written, of your last May Day
Timed out at one-fifteen
An afternoon, so vividly clear
Words flowed for a tragic play
Remembering my Gracious Lady
A Midday Sun, and you were gold
Words of moonlight and silvery nights
Words under stars, we were cold and bold
Words upon oceans, purples and blue
Words on fire, Smouldering beams
Words of Rain In May, your favourite green
Words cry tears of Liquid Joy, a mellow alloy
Words like an eternal vault In My Mind
Words of sorrow and tomorrow
Words of love and you were my dove
A life colours, you were every hue
A life story, coloured and true
The words in Italic, are all referring to poems of mine that have appeared on my blog site here since I started on June 7th 2017, https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/this-lost-shadow-3/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/gracious-lady/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/a-midday-sun/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/smoldering/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/rain-in-may/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/a-few-words/ https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/in-my-mind/
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
You’ve the wings of a gazelle
My graceful Rapunzel
You’ve the spirit of a lion
For you, my soul will keep climbing
You’ve fruit still to bear
My eyes in awe, stare
You’ve a tall elegant style
For you, my lips will always smile
You’ve the soft arms of an angel
But my heart knows, soon you’ll be disabled
The winter will bury you in snow
And I’ll wait ’til spring for you to regrow
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
This is a poem for my friend Colleen, who through her glorious writings, which assist my imagination to be brave and free.
Remain Young and Wild
I’m having a breakfast cuppa
with my friend Chatter Blog from Columbus
sharing our virtual chocolate Teddy-Bears
talking about these current affairs
agreeing we don’t have the answers
today it’s time, for us all to be garden dancers
we’re not lost, but now feeling young and wild
whirlwinds of the day, and our minds are not exiled
If wish to visit ‘Chatter Blog’s'(Colleen) site here’s a link > https://bikecolleenbrown.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/to-the-truth/
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020.
Dear readers and followers, in these difficult times of “isolation”, here’s a great chance 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…..

Welcome to Promote Yourself Monday. All Go Dog Go Cafe community members are invited to post one link 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.
After two days of wind and rain
Here is morning sunshine again
Blueness dances across the sky
“Flowers sip on light”, through moist eyes
Nature blazes into my ambient day
And dazzles my souls’ causeway
These words; “Flowers sip on light”, was borrowed from Robert Okaji’s inspiring poem “A Step Closer”… read his poem via this link > https://robertokaji.com/2020/04/05/a-step-closer-3/
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
today there’s menacing trouble
one day we’ll fly out of our bubbles
hopefully people’s profanity
and selfish insanity
will cease after the matinee
and they’ll resurrect humanity
there shall be more grief
but there will be relief
when love will grow closer
between barriers and the waiter
in my courtyard you’ll exist
in the green leaves of hope
in my heart you’ll exist
in the hum of my souls hope
Featured Image: My fernery’s, Philodendron selloum, called ‘Hope’
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020
This weekend the Saturday challenge from Weekly Prompts, and their monthly colour challenge for April is: Xanadu. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking > HERE
Above Images: Photos from my fernery, of the Philodendron Xanadu.
A Luxury of Green, Xanadu: A Cinquain* poem
Ancient
Kubla Khan times
A Palace of beauty
Mystical Xanadu city
Did thrive
*A Cinquain is 5 lines:
Line 1: 2 syllables
Line 2: 4 syllables
Line 3: 6 syllables
Line 4: 8 syllables
Line 5: 2 syllables
And here’s my favourite “Green” song, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Leaving Green Sleeves’
from a distance
I Know that girl
striding high
beyond that distant sky
I know that smile
from a mile away
years of distance
have passed by
that’s my pathway
until that day
when distance
will be tomorrow
and face to face
they’ll be just one
distant shadow
Ivor Steven (c) April 2020