Hi everyone, thank you for your lovely messages of encouragement and support for my winter surprise package, “Theo the Tomato Tree.” I’m pleased to report that Mother Nature has been very kind. With lots of nutritional overnight rain and a good night’s rest, Theo is looking extremely healthy this morning.
Theo the Tomato Tree
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
Bold and Defiant
On a fold of cold dirt
Between the concrete path
And its plastic edging
A small tomato seedling
Decided this was the spot to sprout
The plant has defied the odds
It’s winter, the ground is cold
And there is no plausible reason
For a seed to germinate, there
Well, I thought to myself
“You’ve come this far, so best
I give you a helping hand”
Carefully, I extracted the tiny plant
From the slim sliver of earth
And replanted the little fella
Into my sunny and secure planter box
Hopefully, the bold bush will survive
The wearisome winter season
And maybe I’ll have some tomatoes
For the Christmas dinner table
.
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 © June 2025
It’s Raining Cats and Dogs
Mother Nature has spoken
The drought has broken
If it doesn’t rain, it pours
Towels at the bottom of the front door
The weatherman predicts
Seven days or more
From ‘Her’ bag of tricks
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the monthly Colour Challenge, and for June, they selected the colour Blue. To visit their fabulous site, please click on Here
Today, my Tanka is about Rainbows, and there’s Blue in a rainbow
Winter’s Rainbows (a Tanka)
Autumn waves goodbye
Winter winds and gloomy skies
Inundate our eyes
Despite the icy, hard rain
Rainbows shine, and do not cry
.
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 © June 2025
I have been focusing on sunsets lately, so appropriately, my Throwback Friday poem is a ‘Sunset’ verse that I wrote in March 2023. However, please note that all images in today’s post were taken this evening.
Sunset, A Moment in Time
here
I stand
waiting
I see
clouds lifting
paddocks shimmering
here
I stand
camera in hand
waiting
for that pivotal moment
where the edge of time
implodes
here
I see
the golden sun
and a tree-lined horizon
majestically collide
sunset!
7.35 pm
click!
picture perfect
.
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 © May 2025
Eugi’s poem
impulsive nature
lauds summer in floral dress
intoxicating
Moonwashed Musings Weekly Prompt >> Let one or more words in my poem be your inspiration.>> http://amanpan.com/2025/06/03/moonwashed-weekly-prompt-june-3-2025/
Intoxicating
Moonlight candles do not cry
And nature never tells a lie
Amber sunsets deny
There is no final goodbye
The pink twilight sky
Knowingly decries
“Tomorrow does not die”
With every breath, I sigh
The universe is my high
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
FREE PDF COPY >>> Links Below
Hello, dear readers and followers. As you might know, I stopped producing my “Tullawalla Booklets” at # 31 because that was the house number of our family’s Tullawalla Homestead.
However, the booklet format is a superb way for me to catalogue the vast number of poems I produce, and as the saying goes, “I Am Turning Another Page”. Here I have begun a new series of poem booklets, called “Shangri La”, the name of my little Villa, and it is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
I now have “2004” Poems filed in these booklet formats!!
(On my bookshelf, I have “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, which contains 1775 poems … when I first started writing poems, I never envisaged that I would produce so many poems)
Click on >> Here, for the link to your FREE: PDF Copy of “Shangri La, Volume 14, Purple Tomato Tree”
OR … Shangri La, Vol 14, Purple Tomato Tree.pdf
Purple Tomato Trees
I have hallucinations of Vikings sailing in the cold
Plundering forgotten hearts and pilfering gold
I am dreaming of the old farmer’s wife
Milking cows and baking all her life
I have feelings for the king, in his isolated castle
Looking forlornly upon his drawbridge, a foodless trestle
I am wandering through an empty paddock
Kicking dew off the grass, searching for a lover’s locket
I have plans for the planet’s desolate future
Growing purple tomato trees until they are mature
I remember her bravery, her everlasting smile
Fading gradually, in her own gracious style
I have ceased stumbling under her distant sky
Now claiming peace among today’s butterflies
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
In response to Sadje’s, WDYS # 291
>> https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2025/06/02/what-do-you-see-291-2june-2025/
I chose her second image, “a shot of a full moon, and in front of the moon, you can see a plane traveling!“
No Anchor, No Breaks, No Parachute!
“Hit the ground running,” they say
Well, I hit Monday
Without a ripcord
On my parachute
It mysteriously disappeared
Out of touch, out of sight
I think I left my ‘safety chute’
At the Market on Saturday
I’m only half finished
My new project,
Shangri La, Volume 14
“We desperately need
a coffee break”, I said to Frankie
So, down to the ‘Cafe’ we went!
This old poet had to relax
And slow down the adrenaline flow
“What goes up, must come down.”
Hopefully, when I crush tonight,
The landing will be a smooth one
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
Today’s poem is from a poetic response that I post about ‘Violet’s’ emotive poem >> https://violetslentz.home.blog/2025/05/27/pink-slip-2/
And over at Weekly Prompts, it’s the last weekend of the month and time for their One Day Prompt! To visit their fabulous site, please click on > Here
A Technical Knockout
When you’re down and out
feeling like a dry river-bed trout
flipping around after an endless drought
And you’re in the vacant corner of another losing bout
There’ll be one day, without doubt
you’ll have nothing left to shout about
Please, I beg, one last Guinness stout
before I get kicked in the spout
by Trump’s next lockout roundabout
After the ruthless rout,
when I blacked out
I was told by a local layabout
“there was no doubt,
the decision was a Technical Knockout”
Ivor Steven (c) June 2025
Feature Image: Please note that my copy of the Geelong Writers Inc. Anthology 2024 was signed by the editor, Judy Rankin, and Judy is also the publisher/editor of my 3 books, Tullawalla, Perceptions, and Until Eyes Hear Sound.
A New Anthology (a Tanka)
Through rain, hail, or shine
I am the messenger bird
I’ve important news
About the Anthology
Don’t let the wires clip my wings
And here is my poem from the Geelong Writers Inc. Anthology
Ivor Steven (c) May 2025
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 