Featured Image Above: The 63 Degrees Cafe, which is across the road from the Box Office Cafe
A happy Frankie, and the little Finch … The Book Bird message.
The New Year is Near (a Tanka)
I’m across the road
At a different cafe
It is New Year’s Eve
Today the Box Office closed
Early for the holiday
Ivor Steven (c) December/January 2023/2024
December, it’s that time of the year for the release of Anthologies, and here is another annual Anthology that my poems have been published in. This Anthology has been produced and published by the Belmont Page Writers Group (Geelong) and superbly edited by our convener, Claudia Collins.
“A Fortunate Man” is the second poem of mine that was published in this year’s fabulously presented Anthology.
Ivor Steven (c) December 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, many of you know that I have recently been diagnosed with having diabetes, and lately my general tiredness is becoming exhausting … and regretfully I will not be actively blogging with my normal enthusiastic zest … My recovery is a steady and slow process and I definitely need a break from my extremely busy blogging programs … hopefully I will be able to resume ‘soonerer than laterer’ …
I Slither Forward
Today, I am moving slowly
Slower than Steve the Snail
Slithering over the morning dew
For every slippery slide forward
There are two shuffles back
Improvement is at a standstill
Impatience is hard to pacify
I am swaying like a rusty gate
Creaking and groaning in a lazy breeze
But I am steadily swinging into the gear
And step by step, I shall find my way
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Over at Moonwashed Musings, the Weekly Prompt is: Mottled Sky Page >> https://amanpan.blog/2023/10/31/moonashed-weekly-prompt-mottled-sky-page/ …I have been overdoing it lately … writing until I am almost exhausted, so my response to the prompt is a bit jaded and moodily a ‘Bittersweet’ poem.
And at “Weekly Prompts” Wednesday Challenge the prompt word is: Bittersweet. You can visit their wonderful site by clicking on >> HERE
Aristotle
My magic Genie has been bottled
I was writing beyond full-throttle
My pencil became rough and cobbled
And my dreams were infirmed and mottled
Then I thought about the genius of Aristotle
“There is only one way to avoid criticism:
do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “What Happened to Motherland”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers >>
https://coffeehousewriters.com/what-happened-to-motherland/
Ivor Steven (c) June 2022
Hello dear readers and followers, I am reposting this poem I wrote in July 2022 in response to Eugi’s “Moonwashed Weekly Prompt” – Peaceable … to visit her fabulous site, please click on >> Here
The White Azalea Peace Garden
I stare at the garden plaque
There on the ground
In front of the white Azalea bushes
I sit on the park bench and wonder
Here under a clear blue sky
Why? Does the sun shine on our world
I was born in nineteen fifty one
Here under a broken moon
During the second year of the Korean War
I stand and walk away
Where must I go?
To view the whole of the moon
Over at “Weekly Prompts”, the Weekend Challenge is the word: Bucolic, please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here … Below is my ‘Rural Weather’ response to the Prompt
The Weather’s Like a Boomerang
Saturday afternoon
We are stuck in the lounge room
Talking to the idiot-box
Outside there’s a winter monsoon
And the rain-god’s drops
Are as big as tablespoons
Full of crushed ice-blocks
Our day of play has gone
Tweedily tweet! The cuckoo sang
“Time to yawn
until tomorrow’s dawn
while waiting for tonight’s moon
to throw the next boomerang”
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) August 2023
A Lanterne is a cinquain form of poetry, in which the first line has one syllable and each subsequent line increases in length by one syllable, except for the final line that concludes the poem with one syllable. Its name derives from the lantern shape that appears when the poem is aligned to the center of the page.
Not, Just Another Day
(a Lanterne)
Clang
Hells bells
Time to wake
I can’t be late
Jump
Bang
I fall
Out of bed
I can’t get up
Stuck
Yuk
Dog licks
No, no more
I’m awake now
Bolt
Out
The door
Cold and wet
Funeral gray
Jolt
Ivor Steven (c) July 2023
“I move with the leaves
I shine with the chrome
I’m almost alive
I’m almost at home” … Leonard Cohen
Almost Home (a Senryu)
Job done, five straight days
I am almost exhausted
Triumphant, I coped
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) July 2023
Sorry to my readers and followers for my lack of blogging this week … The old plumber/poet traded his quill in for his old rusty spanner and dirty hammer …
Drawing Above: done for me in 2017 by, Rose – https://poetrummager.org/
Back On The Tools. (adapted from “An Old-time Plumber”)
Could I actually do the task?
Am I physically strong enough?
Am I mentally sharp and able enough?
To endure four to fives days of hard work?
Surprise, surprise, I have survived the first three days
Job is nearing completion and the clients are suitably pleased
And I am home beside the heater and enjoying a red wine
Although when I finished it was already dark
And my back was stiff as red-gum bark
But a job stamped by my old-time quality trademark
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) July 2023
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 