A Throwback Friday Poem – Page 9

Throwback Friday, Beyond Imagination

I wrote “Beyond Imagination” 5 years ago, while I was in rehab, recovering from my 3rd stroke, and somehow preparing my body for a long and arduous trip to Philadelphia. The attached poem below, “Dreams of the Heart” is a piece I wrote in Philadelphia, in May 2019.

Beyond Imagination (Revised)

This year (2019), after Easter

I’m flying north

Across the Pacific Ocean

Towards a place called America

From the west to the east coast

Landing at the Big Apple

To enjoy a five-day tourist bite

Then a train from Grand Central Station

For a debut meeting with my cousins in Philadelphia

My Dad’s far-away relatives

I shall rejoice in the reunion of our family’s spirits

Oh yes, my lifetime “Dream of the Heart” **

A dubious occurrence just two months ago

But now a reality beyond the realms of my imagination

** “Dreams of the Heart”

I cannot walk the continents
Like the intrepid Marco Polo
But my feet have felt the sands of time
Pass between my toes

I have not sailed the high seas
Like the courageous Christopher Columbus
But my body has bathed
In an ocean full of kind hearts

I’m yet to fly in space
Like the brave Neil Armstrong
But I have reached for the stars
And touched my soul’s dreams

Ivor Steven (c) February 2024

Throwback Friday, Birds On Wires

Going back in my files I discovered that I have “2” poems titled “Birds On Wires”. The First one is from July 2020 and the Second piece is from March 2023, so I decided to post both Poems … maybe you can let me know which one is your favourite.

Birds On Wires, (July 2020, which appears in “Until Eyes Hear Sound” page 12)

Here on the edge of lower earth
Beyond the urban concrete girth
Withering trees are trying to grow
Reaching for that mystical power flow
Hungering for energy from contaminated ground
Not the airwaves of false sonic sound
Man-made arrows cluttering the sky
Unnatural webs soaring high
Bird snatching wires
Hanging on cold steal spires
Carriers of these modern times
The pulse of humanities crimes

Birds On Wires (March 2023)

Weary gray clouds
Lay anchored in the sky
Moist air hangs breathless
Not a wisp to disperse the flies
An anxious sweaty dampness
Clings to everything

Birds on wires sit motionless
Waiting for a thermal updraft
To lift spirits beyond this world of smallness
Where greed and wars seem senseless
And remain the leader’s primary craft

“Until Eyes Hear Sound”, Due out March 21st

Ivor Steven (c) February 2024

Throwback Friday, Imperfectness (a Tanka)

I recently wrote a poem titled “Ivor’s Utopia” and I thought today’s Throwback Friday poem “Imperfectness” would be a perfect accompaniment. “Imperfectness” is from December 2022.

Imperfectness (a Tanka)

My imperfectness

Is perfectly camouflaged

Underneath the trees

Where moon shadows protect me

From the world’s imperfections

Throwback Friday, A Distant Ship (Revised)

Hello dear readers and followers, here’s a re-posting of a poem I wrote in September 2017, and as is my way I have revised the piece for today’s Throwback Friday article.

A Distant Ship (Revised)

Am I afraid, or am I being slowly discouraged.

Dismayed by the emptiness in my wavering heart.

Am I consumed, or am I being bodily starved.

Eaten by the cells of my inner sentiments.

Am I senseless, or have I been possessed.

Devoured by the recess of my lonely soul.

Am I swimming backstroke behind a distant love-boat.

Drowning in the wake of the passing recovery vessel.

Ivor Steven (c) November 2023

Throwback Friday, The Poet’s Grotto

Today’s Throwback poem is a rewrite of an old piece called “Paper Tigers” (Feb 2019)

The Poet’s Grotto

My writer’s studio, is the littered part of my bedroom

A paper tiger’s haven, has become a messy grotto

I am ruefully feeling muddled and befuddled

Pieces of paper and cardboard kites

Scatter the atmosphere like withered autumn leaves

Falling upon my untidy and cluttered archives

Scribbled words are yet to be decoded

Foolscap pages overwritten and eroded

Undefined and unlisted

Out of focus and twisted

Upside down and inside out

Uncategorized and full of self-doubt

My desk’s dreamy picture postcard

Looks like a moonscape’s junkyard

My poetic writing quill has been the mythological ruler

Showing no regard for my bedroom’s demeanour

I am sleeping covered in my hurdy gurdy verses

I cannot penetrate the stack of obscure foreign addresses

It is time to cast out the pretentious cosmic curses

Free myself of all unpublished jabberwocky

And let my imagination create a new poetic hard copy

Ivor Steven (c) October 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.

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

Throwback Friday, Dark Blue

A poem I wrote in January 2022, however, as is my way, I have revised and renamed the poem for my article today … the original title was Black and Blue

Dark Blue

fatigue is chorused by hidden mockingbirds

lethargic attitudes fall over backwards

tiredness melts blue lines into blurry words

weariness distorts midnight’s dark thoughts

and exhaustion eventually sinks a listing Argonaut

Today’s music/video: Is Damien Rice singing Leonard Cohen’s classic “Famous Blue Raincoat” … and fortunately, I am going see the amazing Damien Rice perform “Live” here in Geelong next Thursday night …

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Throwback Friday, Today’s Fragments (Revised)

Today’s ‘Throwback Friday’ poem is from my remembrance week a year ago

“Below; I have formed one poem out of four Senryu that I wrote this morning, and I have many fractured thoughts within my soul, a decade after Carole’s passing on May 3rd 2012 at 1.15pm …“

Today’s Fragments (Revised)
(A four Senryu poem)

I am who I am
I can’t be another man
She’s my hologram

I sat beside her
Next to yesterday’s campfire
Embers in the wind

A red flame flickers
Above her celestial star
My eternal light

On my island home
Sea mist falls across my arms
Completion awaits

https://youtube.com/watch?v=251Blni2AE4%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

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) May 2023