Tag: A Tanka

The Spider and the Hummingbird (a Tanka)




The Spider and the Hummingbird (a Tanka)


The spider declares
“Please do not listen to me”
The wee bird responds
“You must keep spinning your web,
And I shall hum for more light”







.


Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)




Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com


Ivor Steven ©  2025

Today, Twenty-Five Years Ago (a Tanka)




Today, Twenty-Five Years Ago (a Tanka)

Once upon a time
In a land of ice and rhyme
Darkness was my crime
When a rift of hollow mime
Ravaged my body and mind


“The Throwback poem that began the great Rowback”




Who’s Left to Row the Boat

The storms are too many to count
Emotional lows had weathered me out
Her journey with MS was a struggle
How much lower could our lives sink

After fourteen years of our battles, I suffered a Stroke
An ambulance came, my brain was in a boat
Floating out to sea, overboard and panic-stricken
I wasn’t swimming, barely awake, and drifting
I had fallen, nothing was working, and not talking
She’s crying, I’m sobbing, my heart is dying
And who’s left to row the boat, I’m thinking
I was jabbed with a needle and silently sleeping

I awoke a day later, in hospital, feeling wasted
My face was limp, mouth parched, was that death I tasted
My mind was active, I thought, where is she
I knew I was bad; the room was all blurry to me
Strong anxieties had set in, I needed to know
Nurses came to me, I pleaded, I wanted to go
“Help me to see her, just give my bed a tow
Please let me go, before I’m covered in snow”





Ivor Steven (c) September 20th, 2025

My Lunar Lullaby (a Tanka)

Last night’s moonrise over Corio Bay felt like nature’s gentle transition from winter to spring. This Tanka is my reflection (and Frankie’s) on that moment of quiet beauty.


Moonrise by the Bay — a quiet witness to winter’s farewell


My Lunar Lullaby (a Tanka)


Cobalt twilight sky,
With a pink full moon rising
Over a calm Bay-
Winter’s lunar finale,
My world’s springtime lullaby.





Ivor Steven (c) August 2025

My Sky’s Icons (a Tanka)

Hello dear readers and followers, unfortunately, I have to report that my dreaded “BLUE SCREEN CURSE” has returned, and with frustrating difficulty, I have been able to post this article tonight; however, as for my website blogging activities, I am very much restricted by the amount of available time I have left in between my numerous ‘Mirco Soft Shut Downs’ … Hence, the Beluga Lagoon music/video, “Blue” is my appropriate music choice tonight …




My Sky’s Icons (a Tanka)



The moon and the sun
My heavenly universe
For now, beyond reach
“Patience, my son, worry not
One day soon, your time will come.”






Ivor Steven (c) August 2025

An Old Snail Shell (a Tank)


Over at Weekly Prompts, this weekend is their monthly Colour Challenge, and they selected the colour BROWN. To visit their fabulous site, please click HERE.

A big thank you to, Nancy for being the source of my inspiration for this poem

https://theelephantstrunk.org/2025/08/01/the-shells-2/



An Old Snail Shell (a Tanka)

Rusty and earthen,
I supported her burden.
I was no Spartan,
And asked for no one’s pardon-
I’m a bygone guardian.






Beluga Lagoon, The Snail, Lyrics

Pain, no really for me
Some will suffer far more than I will but then we’ll all be still some day
A snail, I’m a snail on the sea
And so slowly I sink to the deep as I try to remember peace

Lions and tigers and beggars and bears
They all live today and they all will decay
The world and the folk and the things you could see
And I swim in the gloom in a room where I struggle to breathe

Where I struggle to breathe
Where I struggle to breathе

Streetlights, gold on cold
Like a beacon
In my sort of soul
Grows so old now the cold
Kills my bonеs
Kills my bones
Kills my bones
Kills my bones
Kills my bones

Graveyards make me calm
I don’t know why
Deepest kind of dreaming
Caribbean coastline
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water
Clear blue water



Ivor Steven (c) August 2025

Mercurial Magpie (a Tanka/Tautogram)


A tautogram is a type of poem where every word in the poem starts with the same letter.


Mercurial Magpie (a Tanka/Tautogram)


Majestic magpie
Morally magniloquent
Magnanimous maid
Minstrelly melodious
Mankind’s mindful masterpiece








.


Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)


Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)


Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com


.


Until Eyes Hear Sound

Lulu Books >>  Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)



Perceptions:

Amazon >>  Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >>  Perceptions (lulu.com)



Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books


OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com


Ivor Steven © July 2025

Winter Flowers (a Tanka)


Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is Intoxicating. To visit their fabulous site, please click HERE



Winter Flowers (a Tanka)

Striving for sunlight
Winter blooms know how to catch
And absorb the warmth
From the cloudless icy sky
Without waiting for springtime






The Sigur Rós song “Með Suð Í Eyrum”—which translates to “With a Buzz in Our Ears”—is a poetic and emotionally charged exploration of sensory overload, communal struggle, and the quiet persistence of life’s deeper rhythms.




Ivor Steven (c) July 2025