Throwback Friday, Crooked Ways (Revision #2)

I originally wrote this poem in January 2019, here today I have revised the piece for a second time.




Crooked Ways (Revision #2)



I’m not to be told, how to live my life

It’s been over a decade since having lost my wife

I’m not a great philosopher

Nor a modern fashion writer

I’m not a sprightly young surfer

Never clever enough to be bursar

Too old to be a toiling plumber

And these days I prefer to pen poetry

Some say you are never too old

Whatever, I shall always be bold

With my plans to reach for the stars

And continue to travel my crooked ways






Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

A Wounded Identity Badge

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is the word: Identity … To visit their fabulous site, please click on >> Here … My poem below is an appropriate and poignant response to the Prompt


A Wounded Identity Badge 


I am lying here on brown dirt 

My human blood is trickling

From a new open-cut wound

Into this ancient and sacred ground 


I have been shot!

Straight through my “Yes” vote badge 

By a white man’s racist outburst 

His rant was full of arrogance and hatred 


My badge is damaged but not destroyed 

My heart is bruised but not broken 

I will steadfastly, forever vote “Yes” 

Until eyes hear the sound of human decency   






Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Cyberspace and Melted Digitals (revised #2)

I’ve been having computer problems for over a month and appropriately I have dug up this old poem and revised it … However, some good news today, my brother said that the computer is fixable and he has started the refurbishment process

Cyberspace and Melted Digitals


This crazy, distorted cyberspace

Can be a dishonest place

Like talking to aliens from outer space

False profiles with no trace


I dislike the blank screen’s cool embrace

Documents unreadable at the coalface

As if they’re hiding from the human race

Or that grand theft of the writer’s database


I’d like to tie together their ” Boot” laces

See them tumble and fall from grace

Straight down the duck-muck-covered staircase

And melt all their digital’s in the fireplace







Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Frankie’s Weekend

Saturday: My brother’s birthday party day

Frankie loves catching up with Aunty Tum

The birthday party feast

Frankie is impressed with the birthday cake.


Frankie makes himself comfortable after the party

Sunday: Ballarat’s Botanical Gardens & Lake Wendouree


It was time to visit the spectacular Botanical Gardens

With Frankie of course

The Picturesque Lake Wendouree

Frankie chats to the swan. Lawrie, Frankie, & me, sitting beside the Lake

Monday: Going back home to Geelong

Frankie’s happy in his car seat. The old Lal Lal Railway Station. The Lal Lal Falls Hotel

Frankie’s in his car seat. The historic Elaine Hotel. Elaine’s new Roadhouse Grocery Store.

The wind turbines near Elaine … but ironically, I’m running out of puff. It’s now 11.15pm Monday here in Geelong, and to produce this post has been a task on my little TV Computer … My desktop computer is back in Ballarat being repaired by my brother and the process could take a while …



My brother turned 71`and I turned 72 back in July, so this old Neil Young song seems appropriate for “Frankie’s Weekend”




Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Trees Weep

Today’s poem was inspired by Dwight’s thought provoking post this morning >> https://rothpoetry.wordpress.com/2023/10/07/embedded-pain

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Trees Weep

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Barbwire scrapes and creeps

Their wounds run deep

Trees stand there and weep

Humans turn a blind eye and sleep

Upon their own rusty scrapheap

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Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Shangri La, Volume 4, A Timeless Zone

FREE PDF COPY >>> Links Below

Hello, dear readers and followers, as you might know I stopped producing my “Tullawalla Booklets” at # 31, because that was the house number of our family’s Tullawalla Homestead.
But the booklet formats are a superb way for me to catalogue the vast number of poems that I produce and as the saying goes “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, and they are called “Shangri La” which is the name of my little Villa, and is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
Incredibly, I now have a total of “1547” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
Click on >> HERE  for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 4. A Timeless Zone“




A Timeless Zone


I stood alone in my second-hand clothes

holding her worn out soul

gently, I slid her urn

into that hollow

inside the brick wall


a moment of heartache

hidden in a chasm of pain

stone-faced again

I stood alone in my timeless zone

not wanting to go home






Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

Timeworn, is in this Week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I am now writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Timeworn”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine.
To Read my poem, please click on the link below to visit the article, at Coffee House Writers Magazine.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/timeworn/



“Timeworn” … An interesting song by the French group ‘Wildpath’ to accompany my thought-provoking poem.




Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

The Forest Monarch

Hello dear readers, this weekend, I am going to Ballarat for my brother’s Birthday, and I’ll be taking my ‘Duck Muck’ computer box with me. Hopefully, my whizz brother will be able to repair it. So, that means I’ll be relatively quiet here on my ‘website’ until my errant computer is up and running again.
Feature Images: The gorgeous photos of the horse wearing ‘a crown and necklace’ is reproduced here on my poetry site with the kind permission of Derrick Knight >> https://derrickjknight.com/2023/09/27/polishing-the-car/

Pony wearing a fern necklace





The Forest Monarch


She roams New Forest

Like a natural born monarch

A true native of the land


She’s glamorous and charismatic

A perfect heir for nature’s game of thrones

A noble horse for our country’s warring forces







Ivor Steven © October 2023

Throwback Friday, Epilogue, My Cloudy Vision

Today I am presenting the Epilogue’ poem that will be appearing in my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”. and “My Cloudy Vision” is a poem I wrote in September 2018, and it will be the finale piece in the Book.
Please Note: the photo attached below, is the proposed cover design for my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”, created by my niece Kerri Costello – Philadelphia.



Epilogue. My Cloudy Vision

I am trying to write myself a Mission Statement 
Feels like a speech I need to practice in the basement 
I have never been good at making speeches 
They are messy, like eating mushy peaches 

When I first began writing poetry 
My main aim was to teach myself to read and write again 
Several years ago, I suffered a Stroke 
Times become tough, depression drowned this bloke 

Poetry became a form of self-therapy 
I listened to music and inspirational lyrics 
Leonard Cohen’s songs were always playing 
I fervently keep writing 

My life became centered inside a small sphere 
While also caring for my lovely wife, her MS was severe 
Writing was my retreat, a place of solace 
My world was narrow, I was skating on thin ice 

Ten years ago, my wife did pass 
My heart turned to water on glass 
Then I heard Leonard singing again 
His music and words were not in vain 

I resumed drafting my poems 
Grieving, words were sad and solemn 
Healing takes time 
Soulfully I wrote more rhyme 

I joined local writers’ groups 
My words were out there, under readers boots 
On a prompt, I started a website six years ago 
My confidence grew, I came in from the snow 

Wondering what my goal is, where do I go 
There are many answers, I do not know 
In the future, I believe a poetry book or two 
I have volumes of poems waiting in the queue 

This is my story 
My life’s journey 
Of cloudy visions 
My words, my mission 







Ivor Steven (c) October 2023