A Throwback Friday Poem – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Throwback Friday, Down to the Valley

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in June 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the second poem in Chapter 11, Poetry in Slow Motion: Who’s Keeping Time.

“Down to the Valley” was written on a day when I strayed from the usual path, letting the landscape guide the poem. It’s a small journey into the unexpected, where nature and recollection meet.

Down To the Valley

Roaming.
Off the beaten track
Over sagged wire fences
Through plowed fields
Down to the valley below
Where sunflowers grow

Detouring.
Across the babbling brook
Toward the castle of broken glass
Cocooned together in woven grass
Until time awakens the past

Until Eyes Hear Sound

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

Ivor Steven © March 2026

Throwback Friday, Cascading Snowflakes (an Epigram)

Featured Image by Julius H. from Pixabay (From Eugi’s Prompt Site)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in June 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the second poem in the Epigram section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.

Throwing back to a poem that reminded me how even small things, like snowflakes, can ease old heartaches.

Cascading Snowflakes (an Epigram)

With every breath we take
After our weary eyes awake
The existence of daybreak
Appeases our heartaches
As cascading, soft snowflakes
Gently flow over our old keepsakes

Until Eyes Hear Sound

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

Ivor Steven © March 2026

Throwback Friday, The Last Encore (a Micro Poem)

Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me, A man stands at the edge of time, where the foreshore fades, and the door to the encore glows.

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in January 2024) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the opening poem in the Micri Poem section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.

The Last Encore

I am standing on
the diminishing foreshore
Staring at that
missing ground floor
“Like there was a door”
Between here
and the last encore

And so we stand, between here and the last encore — listening for time’s quiet applause.

Until Eyes Hear Sound

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

Ivor Steven © February 2026

Throwback Friday, The Mystique (a Musette)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in January 2024) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the second poem in the Musette section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.
I find the Musette’s restrictive poetry format to be very challenging
A Musette is,
three verses
first line – 2 syllables
second line – 4 syllables
third line – 2 syllables
rhyme scheme – a/b/a c/d/c e/f/e
The title reflects the poem’s content

The Mystique (a Musette)

Friday
I said to you
“Please stay”

You said
“Only one night
Twin beds”

Next week
We savoured the
Mystique

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 © February 2026

Throwback Friday, Sadness (a Senryu)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in July 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Senryu section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.
A small return to 2023, where shadows still had something to teach me.

Sadness (a Senryu)

Below the grayness
Naked emotions stumble
Between the shadows

For a soundtrack to this quiet ache, here’s Leonard Cohen’s Show Me the Place — a voice searching through the same shadows.”

Ivor Steven © February 2026

Throwback Friday, My Mind Meanders (a Tanka)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in August 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Tanka section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.

I’ve done lots of meandering today, and now I need to have a doggie nap

My Mind Meanders (a Tanka)

On our morning trail
Where beginnings never end
Imagination
Meanders around each bend
Conscious of nature’s haven

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 © February 2026

Throwback Friday, Beyond Sight (a Haiku)

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in August 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Haiku section of Chapter 10, Time’s Short Poems: Haiku, Tanka, etc.

Beyond Sight (a Haiku)

Good morning sunrise
I soak in daylight’s caress
Until eyes hear sound

Ivor Steven © January 2026

Throwback Friday, Where Have the Fairies Gone?

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in August 2023) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Fairyland section of Chapter 9, Humour, Fantasy, and Fairyland: Timeless

Where Have The Fairies Gone?

Deep in the enchanted woods
Under mossy rocks and water-reeds
I saw an iron-bar prison door
Lying over a cave in the dry creek bed

I wondered and yelled out
“Hello! Is anyone down there?”
Eerily, a gentle voice whispered
“Do not worry, we are sheltering here.”
“Why are you hiding?” I inquired
“We are waiting for humanity
to stop the carnage on our planet.”

Then, peeping up from lower in the chasm
I witnessed that the small luminous eyes
Of Earth’s guardian faeries
Were joyless and crying

Music/Video: by Sigur Ros, “Ylur”, translated means, Warmth

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, A Blade of Light

Please note the featured photo and attached photos above are taken from Street Art in the Geelong CBD

Today’s Throwback Friday poem (originally written in January 2025) is drawn from my upcoming book, Time Hears No Sound. It appears as the first poem in the Fantasy section of Chapter 9, Humour, Fantasy, and Fairyland: Timeless

A Blade of Light

Far beyond my darkest night
Clambering out of purgatory’s deepest void
I grasp onto a single blade of light
On the edge of my soulless asteroid
Who rescues me from Armageddon’s endless fight

Awaking in a pool of sweat, just after midnight
This meaningless nightmare gave me a hellish fright

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, Hotter Than Helios

Featured Image Above: From Bing Images, numrush.nl

Here in Geelong, we are going through a warm/hot spell, and this is a poem that I wrote in January 2019, so appropriately, the poem gets replayed today.

Hotter Than Helios

Today is hotter than hot
This town’s a living melting pot
You could fry an egg without a cooktop
I won’t be taking Yorkie for a trot
My body’s losing the plot
Waiting for my aorta’s mystery clots

My writing’s burnt out, on Helios hill
Leaving an arid inkwell, holding a dry quill
Despite the heat, I’ll do an exercise session. It’s my will
To continue with this daily drill
No excuses, to lose sight of spring’s daffodil
Working out, like I’m an old grinding flour mill

Even if I’m over-baked, like Sunday’s hot roast
For her, I’ll take life’s chances to the utmost