Anti-Rust

Over at Weekly Prompts the Wednesday Challenge word is: Time . To visit their fabulous site, please click on >> Here … my poem “Anti-Rust” spans twenty-three years of “Time”…


Anti-Rust


Twenty-three years have gone

Since I suffered my first stroke

I remember being cold and scared

I awoke the next day in hospital

Feeling like my limbs were full of rust

And my confused mind

Was locked inside a sleepwalking man

Disorientated and not to be trusted


Twenty-three years on

And two more strokes later

My body is still full of rust

But with the wonders of modern medicine

And some plucky self determination

I have recovered my cognitive abilities

And with the aid of anti-rust drugs

I am active enough to type up my canny poems





The Rust, Sivert Hoyem . Lyrics

Twenty hours he is gone
Another time she’s waiting for him
When he comes home
He’s in terrible state
He’s just sitting there by the window
With his hate

A rusty bathtub in the garden
Seven cars are in the yard
And only one that is running
Life is spout??? in the wilderness
But in his heart

It’s not a place for new beginnings
Everything you make make just falls apart

Sometimes she thinks
It’s the rust that eats the soul
In the winter time the sky is burning
Purple orange and gold

So one night like any other
She takes her bags out to the car
She passes a minute
Then she starts down the road
You can get anywhere
On the full tank of fuel
And on an empty heart

It’s not a place for new beginnings
Everything you make just falls apart
The house neglected and forbidden
???
???

Just thinking about it breaks your heart
???? from the ceiling
??? burning stars
So decay and the rust that eats the soul
The winter sky burns eternally
But people come and people go





Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

The Snail and Jack Frost





The Snail and Jack Frost


My life as a snail is plain

Slithering alone in the hard rain

I ask, “Have I been deceived

where are the new geranium leaves?”


It is time to go nomadic

Leave this withered garden bed

Look for a greener paddock

With a big cabbage spread


“Am I climbing the right causeway?

this windowpane is no entree

and the flyscreen ahead

looks like moldy cornbread”


My life as a snail is no paradise

Everything is topsy turvy and I am lost

And I need to wait here for advice

From my friend Jack Frost








Ivor Steven (c) October 2023

What Happened to Motherland?, is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “What Happened to Motherland”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers >>

https://coffeehousewriters.com/what-happened-to-motherland/






Ivor Steven (c) June 2022

A Fluffy White Stairway

Over at Weekly Prompts “today is the 1st October”, and the October Colour Challenge is Just Black! … Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here … and below is my response to the ‘Prompt’


A Fluffy White Stairway


Gazing above

At the faint fluffy clouds

I see a narrow stairway

Ascending into the sky


I wonder

What happens

At the top of the stairs

Beyond the open doorway

Will the outlook

Be dazzling white

Or a panorama

Of just black








Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’


AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:


Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com  



Ivor Steven (c) September 2023

Throwback Friday, Dancing In The Rain (an Epigram)

Today I am presenting the ‘penultimate‘ poem that will be appearing in my new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”. and “Dancing In The Rain (an Epigram)” is a poem I wrote in September 2022, and it will be the last piece in the ‘Others’ section of Chapter 10. Short Poems: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and Others
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.

Artwork © Kerri Costello




Dancing In The Rain (an Epigram)


In one way or another

After leaving our mothers

Life delivers us to love and pain

While dancing in the rain







Ivor Steven (c) September 2023

“True”, Nominated For, Publication Of The Month, at Spillwords Press.


Hello dear readers and followers, I’m proud to announce that over on Spillwords Press, my poem “True” has been Nominated for “Publication of The Month for September” … So eat humble pie guys … and get your VOTING CARDS out again, and if you wish, you can Vote for me by “SEPT 29” via this Spillwords Link:  https://spillwords.com/vote/

Please remember that you will need to register and/or log in to cast your vote.


Thank you to Dagmara K and the entire Spillwords team.


Congratulations to the other Nominees

HERE ARE THE NOMINEES:

Fever by Suman Pokhrel
The Falling Man by Stephen Kingsnorth
Kings of The Water by Tim Barlow
Chilling Embrace by Lauren Scott
Love Lane by Simona Prilogan
Two Black Cats by Tamara Lindsay
Ruth by James Walmsley
True by Ivor Steven
You’re No Good For Me by Sheila Henry
Rubble Women by David Milner
Harvest by Elaine Nadal
Unobtainable by S.J. Walker
Two Weeks Today by Elizabeth Ricketson
Endless Scale by Vasile Trif

TRUE

written by: Ivor Steven

@ivors20

If there is something
I could do
I would do anything
To save you
Mother Nature, you are everything
I look up to
My words are nothing
Compared to you
You are the orchestrator of things
With a balcony view






Ivor Steven (c) Sept 2023

Broken Ground

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is: Broken Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here … My appropriate Broken poem is attached below




Broken Ground




I stand here

and look to the east

my tolerant eyes

see an unbroken white moon

in a clear sapphire sky


behind me

from the west

I feel the unbroken golden sun

warm my ancient shoulders


here I am

standing on

middle ground


below me

I hear my broken earth

groan through the cracks

caused by the broken

and unshackled chains of war







Ivor Steven (c) Sept 2023

A Torn Thesaurus

I went to the Geelong Writers monthly social meeting at the Box Office Cafe this evening … I am back home, It’s 10.30pm, I’m tired, my computer is “duck muck” again, so I thought I would a reblog of this ‘appropriate’ poem before I hit the sack



A Torn Thesaurus



With my fiddle and riddles

Here in the middle

Of this unopened universe

Time spirals in reverse


Quills fly in from cyberspace

As alien words unravel and interlace

A torn thesaurus is my database

I wonder

Have I landed in the right place?


But that does not matter

K-9’s happy with the community chatter

Doggie treats and friendly pats

And he presents his paw for more

Like a hungry beggar’s cap






Ivor Steven (c) July 2022