What’s Out There?


Today’s poem is one of my verses made up of comments I posted on two of my fellow WordPress writers’ articles during the month … In stanza order, they are:
*Stanzas I & 2, Yelling Rosa >> https://yerosacom.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/about-the-death-e-morte/
*Stazas 3 & 4, Sara >> https://purplepeninportland.com/2025/05/01/i-wish-a-dream/



What’s Out There?



Out there, beyond the cosmic frost
I think we all would be lost
And the scientists have their stars crossed

The universe cannot be bossed,
over glossed, or embossed
By “AI” and Microsoft

I raise my flask
To solving the task

Maybe it’s too much to ask
Of those that quietly bask
From behind their cozy masks








Ivor Steven (c) May 2025

A Poet and a Handyman





A Poet and a Handyman




Today I completed making two book display easels
for my upcoming market bookstalls
There happened to be some discarded timber
lying on the ground at the building site next door.
The tradesmen had finished the job a month ago
and these sturdy slats of wood had been left behind.

“Waste not want not”
“One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure”
“Opportunity knocks”
“Fortune favours the brave”

My handyman’s mind clicked into gear
and I drafted a rough sketch of my project
I knew the size of the books I wanted to exhibit
and I had all the appropriate tools in my shed

Remembering my dad’s trusted catchphrase
“Measure twice, cut once” (and with my music playing)
My creation, (and a few trial and error mistakes)
gradually began to take shape.

Of course, there is nothing like a good coat of paint
to cover up the defects and give my masterpiece
that final seal of opaque professionalism!






.


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 © April 2025

Patchwork Words


Today’s poem is created from an amalgamation of “4” anecdotes/comments that I have sent to my fellow WP sites in response to their fabulous poems/articles …
In stanza order, they are:
* Carol >> https://therapybits.com/2024/08/04/in-the-bright-patchwork-where-colors-collide/
* Mark >> https://havocandconsequence.wordpress.com/2024/08/07/ignore-ignited-flame/
* Michelle >> https://herwritinghaven.com/2024/08/07/hard/
* Willow >> https://willowdot21.wordpress.com/2024/08/07/wordless-wednesday-memories-3/






Patchwork Words


Our big wondrous world
Is like a well-worn patchwork quilt
Where the warmth of hope and love does not wilt

We fly through decades of storms
I wonder
Are we the pilot of our journeys

Our unreadable blueprints
Are only guidelines in black ink
To make us think
Of life’s kinks and chinks
And those indistinct
Instinctive missing links

Our treasured memories
Are like nursery rhymes

They stay in our minds forever 













All Books. Now Available At:

Creative Geelong MAY’D Shop,
Shop 15/Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
TRADING HOURS
Thursday-Saturday
11am-3pm


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) August 2024

My Easter Sunday Project

I had enough wooden letters, some leftover pieces of timber, glue, white semi-gloss paint, and assorted cans of spray paint colours.

The Project; to design and build a stand-alone large bookend for my “Poetry Book” shelf.

Result; My bookend/stand looks colourfully handsome, and sturdy.


I thought of rhyme alone,
For rhyme can beat a measure out of trouble
And make the daylight sweet once more.

William Butler Yeats








Ivor Steven (c) March 31st 2024

Throwback Friday, Wonderment Rings True

Yesterday, Michele Lee (>>https://myinspiredlife.org/2024/03/06/paper-airplane-pilot/) asked me about my “Itmims” spacecraft, which prompted me to post this poem from September 2020.



Wonderment Rings True


My imagination’s beaming

Alive and dreaming

Even when I’m sleeping

Tired eyes are peeping

Searching for the milky-way

Flying there, on my open sleigh

And sailing the air-waves

High above broadway




Steering my spacecraft, Itmims**

While reading The Brothers Grimm

And playing a tune on my old violin

The theme from ‘Lord of the Rings’




I’m a visionary Sky Pilot

With a handful of violets

Travelling beyond a silvery moon

To float upon our blue lagoon





**Itmims; ”Ivor’s Time Machine In Micro Space”….








Until Eyes Hear Sound
Not available on Lulu or Amazon yet … but you may purchase it from me, via this web page or my email >> ivorrs20@gmail.com

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) March 2024

A Star Called Home 





A Star Called Home  


I am high flying  

On the back of Phillip 

My mystical fairy Penguin 


I am the co-pilot 

As we zoom over the halfway marker  

That line in the sand 

Now, there is no turning back 


We are a dynamic duo 

Wholeheartedly committed 

To fulfill our dreams 


Ungainly we may be 

As we skim above the deepest sea 

Toward the blue horizon 

Chasing the cosmic sky 

Looking for a star called home  




Help or Hindrance

“As a poet, sometimes we confuse ourselves, Trying to create ashes, instead of fire ” – Leonard Cohen

Over at Weekly Prompts the November Colour Challenge is: Flame … Please click on >> Here to visit their fabulous site.
My poem below, is about whether or not anyone reads or takes any notice of the “flame” within a poet’s words.

“I set out one night
When the tide was low
There were signs in the sky
But I did not know
I’d be caught in the grip
Of the undertow” – Leonard Cohen, from his poem ‘Undertow’, taken out his book “The Flame”




Help or Hindrance


There the penguin squats

So slick and smug

Point blank

He questions me

“What are you doing?

Where are you going?

What are you trying to achieve?”

Why are you crying?


“I’m timeworn and unsure”

I blandly reply to Freddie

The fidgety fairy penguin

And despairingly, I gaze

Back at Freddie

Through my teary eyes


As I continue to wonder

Are my imaginary words

A help or hindrance








“Until Eyes Hear Sound” will be available in December

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) 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

My Mind Meanders (a Tanka)

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








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) August 2023

Misplaced in Space, is in this week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine 

Hello dear readers and followers, I am now writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Misplaced in Space”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below and visit my poem, at Coffee House Writers Magazine. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/misplaced-in-space/









Ivor Steven (c) July 2023