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

Animal Clouds

At Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word: Fresh. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here … Below is my response to their prompt Fresh.


Animal Clouds


 

Today, the shapely edges of my sky 

Formed a gigantic picture frame 

Around nature’s enigmatic blue canvas 

A magical background for the awaiting clouds 

To project their showy animal images on 


 

Then the cinematic masterpiece rolled in 

There above I saw a white Whale float by 


And across in the corner of the screen  

A Cheetah crept in, ready to pounce 

Upon the sleepy afternoon moon 









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) June 2023

Arousing “Itmims”

Today’s poem is one that I wrote while attending a “Writing Circle” meeting, hosted by the talented and gracious, Ali Grimshaw … If you are interested in attending one of her fabulous on-line “Zoom Sessions”, you can visit her site by clicking on this link
>> https://flashlightbatteries.blog/
Featured Image Above; my photo of my computer’s start-up screen this morning, from Windows Microsoft


Arousing “Itmims”


I hear a thunderous storm

Rumbling above

I see a chromatic sky

Illuminating my yard

I feel my romantic dreams

Arousing my Itmims* spacecraft


There ready and waiting

For time to chime in

My next mysterious rhyme

However

Time hears no commands

And silently resets her sundial’s hands

To reignite dawn’s golden strands



*Itmims: “Ivors Time Machine In Micro Space







Tullawalla is Available From;

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’



Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

Throwback Friday, Itmims (Ivor’s Time Machine In Micro Space), by Ivor Steven

The article I posted on “Go Dog Go Cafe” today >> https://godoggocafe.com/2022/11/18/throwback-friday-itmims-ivors-time-machine-in-micro-space-by-ivor-steven/

“Itmims” is a poem I wrote in December 2018, when I was hospital, in an ‘Isolation Room’, and Itmims space craft was my imaginative means of escaping confinement.



Itmims (Tullawalla, page 60)




Welcome aboard my bubble ship, Itmims

Come fly with me into the unknown

We shall traverse time and space

Across the borders of level seven

Beyond the boundaries of intelligence

We’ll discover the story of Tullawalla

Capture the heart of a beautiful red-head

Learn about her journey of grace and bravery

Understand the depth of your soul

Show others what happens to the heart

Find your star, your colour, your lost art

Walk deserts in space, swim the Milky-way

Breathe the air I breathe, see what I see

Feel her soft red hair, on your cheek

Step inside my Itmims, sharing love on the high seas




Tullawalla is Available From;
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Tullawalla-Meeting-Place-Memories-Rhymes/dp/0645377023/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SX7VLARQ6RDK&keywords=tullawalla+by+ivor+steven&qid=1668595900&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjMzIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=Tullawalla%2Cstripbooks%2C286&sr=1-1

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com