Who was In My Bed?
I always make my bed in the morning
As soon as I get up.
Surprise, surprise!
When I arrived home from outing
To the Geelong Short Play Festival show
There: my bed covers, we’re all ruffled up!
“Who had been sleeping in my bed?”
When I left my house
There was only one guy inside
To look after the place
While I was out having a good time
Yep! … you guessed it
That, guilty-looking, “Frankie”
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
“Time Hears No Sound”
Good news! I’ve completed the first draft of my manuscript and have begun the initial proofreading phase. I’m delighted to share that my previous editor and publisher, Judy Rankin, along with the talented cover designer and illustrator, Kerri Costello, have both agreed to join me on this new project. Their support means the world as I take this next step.
Manuscript Details: 189 poems, 177 pages, and 11,555 words.
Proofreading at the Cafe
There’s a manuscript in my knapsack,
Traveling along with every step I take
Proofreading is a necessary backtrack –
Page after page, in between coffee breaks,
Until the task is completed,
Even if I am feeling exhaustipated.
‘On the Nature of Daylight‘ by Max Richter — the kind of music I listen to while proofreading. Gentle, expansive, and quietly stirring, it helps me hear the silence between the words.
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
It’s Market Day this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
* Our popular monthly markets are all undercover at Centrepoint Arcade on the third Saturday of every month.
* They feature art, unique goods from local makers, second-hand goods, plants, books, and more.
* There are also open art studios, Yesterday Vintage, Untether Gallery, HBT Collectables, and the May’d Shop.
All at, Centrepoint Arcade
132 Little Malop St, Geelong
From 11 am to 3 pm
And I’ll be there with ‘Frankie’ and my “New Bookstall Set-up”
Ivor Steven (c) October 2025
Yesterday, I attended my Belmont Page Writers group meeting, where we all take turns reciting our pieces of poetry or prose. Well, when it was Adrian’s turn, he produced his guitar and sang us a delightful song. My music/video of his lovely rendition is attached below (Whoops, I missed the first verse, so the video begins at the ‘Chorus’)
Adrian’s Song
“A Song of Dusk” (Lyrics by Adrian Brooks © )
Dusk dims the day
As she looks across the water
And watches his ship sail away
And disappear from sight
Now, time is all that’s left for her
To hang on hopes and promises
That echo through the ocean of her light
‘Chorus’
Rise the moon and set the sun
A star for every sigh of love
Ask how deep the waters run
And the wind for songs healing
Muse of the dusk
The tale commands its telling
For nothing counts for certainty
In matters of the heart
So who can say they’re meant to be
Two lovers bound for unity
When all the fates keep driving them apart
Rise the moon and set the sun
A star for every sigh of love
Ask how deep the waters run
And the wind for songs healing
And in their grief do they believe
Some hidden wheels are turning
Shaping all the happenings of future days
That there’s a world they can’t perceive
Where lovers’ fires keep burning
Till someday their paths will cross again
Rise the moon and set the sun
A star for every sigh of love
And this farewell’s their final one
As the wind cries its pity
Land’s lights are gone
And roll the waves unending
He begs the night sky’s confidence
But nothing will it betray
And though with all his heart he yearns
To turn the tide of destiny
Still, the waters carry him away
Ivor Steven © October 2025
Hello, dear readers and followers. I write for Coffee House Writers magazine (USA) fortnightly, and my poem “Before, Between, and Beyond” is in this week’s edition. The full title in my ‘Office Documents’ is “Before, Between, and Beyond (or, Under a Cloud, to Beyond Cloud Nine),” but that was too long for the Magazine.
To read the poem, please click the link below to visit my Coffee House Writers Magazine article.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/before-between-and-beyond/
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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 © October 2025
Daylight Saving steals an hour, but where does it go? This poem wonders aloud, with a wink and a sigh, as time slips overboard. Paired with Tame Impala’s hypnotic rhythm, it’s a meditation on the absurdity of lost time.
“Man Overboard!”
Time vanished overboard,
and was last seen going forward.
Who will rescue the lost hour?
Who has the righteous power,
inside the clock’s stoic tower?
Somehow it doesn’t matter
that no one heard the clatter.
Time has no protective hands.
Time is not a rubber band,
nor a loose grain of sand.
I do not understand
how time’s forgotten hour was banned
and stored away in never-never-land.
Ivor Steven © October 2025
Before going over to Gabriola Island, we (me, Penny & Dave) had lunch with Dave’s sister, Sandra, and husband Jordon, at the charming Gina’s Mexican Cafe in Nanaimo
The inviting Gina’s Mexican Cafe
My scrumptious lunch
Left to Right, me, Jordon, Sandra (Dave’s sister), Dave, and Penny. Then Sandra and Dave
And a great time was had by all.
Ivor, Sandra, Jordon, Penny, and Dave
Ivor Steven (c) September 2025
Genoa Cove and Dave, Penny, and Ivor, after walking the ‘planks’ between the Floating Homes
Ivor Steven (c) September 2025
Circadian Dysrhythmia
Lying under a dreamworld of clover
Feeling like I have been run over
By yesterday’s supersonic jet
But I am not dead yet
Even though my eyes are firmly shut
Inside my head lives a snoring walnut
Ivor Steven (c) September 2025
Late Monday morning. After visiting the incredible Kinsol Trestle, it was time to board the Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay ferry, and then drive back to cousin Lynn’s place in North Saanich.
On the ferry from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay with Penny and Dave
Senanus Island and approaching Brentwood Bay.
After lunch at Lynn’s place in North Saanich, it was a fond farewell to Penny and Dave, who headed back to Duncan and Maple Bay (Mount Tzouhalen) …
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Ivor Steven (c) September 2025
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 