A Throwback Friday Poem – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Throwback Friday, The Voice (a Monologue)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in September 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the second poem in Chapter 7, Governments and Leaders: Behind the Times

The Voice (a Monologue)

Do not yet shut your doors
But give me leave to speak with you and yours
Do not yet turn away?
The time I ask of you is brief for what I have to say
Join me in the shade of this country’s trees
My ancient words are free
But why listen to a language you cannot see
In the past, you have not heard my pleas
Forever! I have been treated harshly

I am a dream-time spirit bird
Flying within your boundaries seems absurd
You! Have clipped my wings
And unashamedly ripped apart my kin
You! Desecrated my sacred ground
For the price of two axes and a Pound
Yes! It’s time to sit without descent
On the sand inside your tribal tent

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Ivor Steven © December 2025

Throwback Friday, Flying Among The Clouds

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in March 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It opens Chapter 6, Travel and Life: Time Flies (Travel)

Flying Among the Clouds

I’m flying high
Cruising among the clouds
Fly with me
And the rest of my flock
Up here
There’s no need for a clock

Time gives no commands
Cruising among the clouds
Silently overseeing the crowd

Time always flies
At the same standard pace
There, in that space
Between daytime’s silvery moon
And twilight’s glittery sun

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Ivor Steven © December 2025

Throwback Friday, A Fire That Burns in the Cold

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in July 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears in Chapter 5, Dreaming: A Poet’s Favourite Pastime

A Fire That Burns in the Cold

From behind the trees,
And out of the grasses,
We cannot stop the fire
-That burning desire-
From soaring higher,
Higher than the entire
Starry, starry choir.

So, best we inquire
To the Almighty Supplier:
“Will there be a ceasefire
at the top of your golden spire?”

Ivor Steven (c) December 2025

Throwback Friday, Misplaced in Space

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in July 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It opens Chapter 4, The Universe: Infinity Times Infinity

Misplaced in Space

there is inner space
and there is outer space
I like to travel in both places
life is not race
my database
is my bookcase

I am yet to embrace
the coalface
face to face
and this human race
has misplaced
the meaning of grace
and lost the paper chase
to the corporate greed of cyberspace

tonight, I’m flying down to inner-space
aboard my “Itmims” spacecraft
to find a redeemable place
inside humanities headspace

Itmims: Ivor’s Time Machine In Micro Space

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Ivor Steven © November 2025

Throwback Friday, Winter Sun

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears in Chapter 2, Nature: An Unbiased Timekeeper

Winter Sun

What my careless eyes perceived
My unprepared senses
Soon, I found out that they had been deceived
The day appeared sunny enough for a stroll
And I ventured into the afternoon cold
Ten steps out, a glacial wind took hold

The blustery arctic blast
Snapped every limb within grasp
My breath turned into icy glass
My ears were stabbed by frigid darts
My cheeks were slapped by gloves of frozen brass
And the winter sun failed to warm my heart

Ivor Steven (c) November 2025

Throwback Friday, Flying Through Time

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It opens Chapter 3, Time: Hears No Commands—a section that explores the quiet rebellion of nature and spirit against the ticking of the clock.

Flying Through Time

Flying below the clouds
or
Zooming above the bay
or
Swooping across the paddocks

My wings
are oblivious
to the climb
And do not hear
the sound of time

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 (c) January 2025

Throwback Friday, Lost and Found – or – There, Here, and Where?

Throwback Friday: Shadows Revisited. First shared in January 2025, this poem now finds its place as the opening to my upcoming collection, Time Hears No Sound.

The final proofreading of my upcoming poetry collection, Time Hears No Sound, is nearly complete. This weekend marks the last quiet read-through before I send it off to my editor and publisher (Judy). Meanwhile, my talented cover designer (Kerri) is crafting the book’s visual soul. There’s still a journey ahead, but everything is unfolding beautifully. Thank you for walking beside me.

Lost and Found – or – There, Here, and Where?

There
Lying on solid ground,
my shallow shadow wears no face
And utters no sound.

Here
My outline bears no carapace.

Where
On a graveside mound,
I see my darkness —
waiting to be found.

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Ivor Steven © November 2025

Throwback Friday, Blue Pastic Tripe

Recently, the theme of most of my poems has been nature and our treatment of the environment. Today’s Throwback Friday poem, written in October 2019, was also a reflective poem about nature.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. … Albert Einstein

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. … Albert Einstein

Blue Plastic Tripe

The sun’s filtered warmth
Opens my notebook
And a red wine
Enhances the imagination nook
This Cafe’s quietly humming
Enticing my visions into reality
As my heart beats out a rhyme
Listening to melodic rhythms
And I sing to myself, a worldly question
Do we have the character —
to repair our transgressions?

A forest symphony’s chiming,
“All my leaves are brown.”
Touching a sensitive soul, one more time
Forcing my dancing feet down to the coastline
Where I hear Mother Earth, singing the blues
And sad mermaids are playing harps in tune,
to the ancient whales, deep moaning sounds
” The ocean now covers me, in plastic tripe”
Are we hearing the lullaby of his final night?

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Throwback Friday, Intertwined

Recently, the theme of most of my poems has been nature. Today’s Throwback Friday poem, written in September 2021, was also a reflective poem about nature.

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – I have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.” ― Walt Whitman

Intertwined

Why are we deaf and blind?
How can we be so silently unkind?
Nature is not our kitchen to be redesigned

Mother Earth is our holy shrine
Our one and only protective rind
All we need is her love intertwined

______________________________________

Featured Image: Forest Garden, Mt Dandenong, Victoria, by Greg Brave

______________________________________

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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.

Throwback Friday, Lights Above Bridges

Featured Image: Pixabay. Aurora Borealis

Yesterday, while we were walking along the banks of the Barwon River, we passed under the historic Queens Park Bridge, so today’s Throwback Friday poem is quite appropriate; originally written in September 2021.

Lights Above Bridges (Revise)

Bridges span our invisible years
And carry our forgotten tears
Crossing over old hidden fears

Bridges are burnt over time
Years turn to ashes in an instant
And time is our only constant

Beyond the longest bridges
Under the ocean’s bluest seas
And above nature’s greenest hues
Love’s pulsating Aurora nights renew