Life & Nature – Page 34 – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Don’t Blame the Moon

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word Pookie. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here.
“Pookie” is a common euphemism for something cute. Well, I suppose my ‘strange orange rocks’ or my ‘smiling moon’ could be cute.

Don’t Blame the Moon

I see strange orange rocks
Among the fallen branches and leaves
Discerningly, time reminds me
They were not there yesterday

Enquiringly, I look up to the sky
And I see the moon smiling at me
As if to say, “Don’t blame me”

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) February 2025

Day Lily and Love (Revised)

During early February, my stunning Day Lily begins to bloom, which nostalgically coincides with my father’s birthday week. A potted perennial that I rescued from my dear departed parent’s homestead. The lilies always grace my garden in February as nature’s tribute to Dad, and today’s revised poem was originally written in February 2017, when me and Dad’s day lily moved into my villa, “Shangri La” …

Day Lily and Love (Revised)

Upon my pillow, I sleep
Good morning, I do peek
From the cushion of my dreams
To my garden’s awakening beams
Blushing red hues, oh so bright
You bloom during the night

And after cuddling the dew
You open up your scenic view
Flowering, standing proud, and steep
Perfection at my feet
A glorious Lily, like the wings of a dove
And by sunlight, you air your love

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) February 2025

Mudlarks Are Whimsical Duet Singers (a Tanka)

Duet Singing. Magpie-larks are one of the 200-odd species of birds around the world that are known to sing in duets. Each partner produces about one note a second, but a half-second apart, so humans find it difficult to tell that there are actually two birds singing, not one.

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is the word Whimsical. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here.

Mudlarks Are Whimsical Duet Singers

The Magpie Lark is
Unique to Australia
A small singing bird
With striking black and white plumes
Our sopranos of the sky

Ivor Steven (c) February 2025

To Find a Shady Spot

To Find a Shady Spot

Walking from one shady spot
To the next shady spot
Via the street’s shopfront verandahs
We arrive at our favourite Cafe
Where the staff gives us a welcoming wave

Outside, the blazing sun is wickedly hot
Inside, beneath the fan, in a shady spot
The open porch area remains hot
Although a caressing sea breeze
Is beginning to cool our lot

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) February 2025

The Sky’s Silver Screen

The Sky’s Silver Screen

The storm’s bulging darkness
Has burst it’s bubble
Lashing me with fat drops
And sharp pieces of white rubble

Meanwhile
Low in the gloomy twilight sky
I see the sun’s Venetian slats of light
Develop into a radiant rainbow
Over the cloud’s crying eye

Then startlingly
The illustrious rain beans
Began to perform like glitzy stars
Dancing across the sky’s silver screen

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) February 2025

Shangri La, Volume 12. Resuming the Climb

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.
But the booklet formats are 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” which is the name of my little Villa, and is my piece of “earthly paradise, a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization”.
I now have “1901” 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 12, Resuming the Climb
OR …
Click on this link >> Shangri La, Volume 12, Resuming the Climb.pdf

Resuming the Climb

From beyond the grand universe of mime
The eternal wings of time
Embraced the muse of my rhymes
Rewinding my heartstrings’ chime

Words cascade onto my blue lines
And valiantly my soul resumes the climb

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) February 2025

“We Were the Last Mohicans”

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Colour Challenge for February is Green. To visit their fabulous site, please click on >> Here.
Hmmm, no green words in my poem, but there was a showy “Green” succulent plant under the cafe’s verandah

“We Were the Last Mohicans”

Saturday at the Cafe
It’s not as hot as Helios
But the mid-summer sun
Is flexing his Solar Plexus
I’m sweating
And Frankie is panting

The open verandah is shady
With an occasional zephyr
Wafting over our table
Refreshing enough
To keep us comfortable
Pleasant enough
To allow me the energy
To write these casual words

Mid-afternoon
The cafe’s patrons
Are gradually departing
And we are the last Mohicans

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) February 2025

Throwback Friday, Playing Cards

Today’s Throwback Friday poem is from January 2021, and it was a piece that I had forgotten about, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the poem while searching my files this morning.

Playing Cards

To many questions
And I do not have the answers
I am running out of rhyme
Is it time?
To go back to school
Me, a forgetful old fool
Or, I could stay here
Wait for the anteater to cheer
Sit in my garden courtyard
Avoid soul searching and just play cards
With Oscar the wise old owl
And Phillip the penguin, he’s my pal

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) January 2025

Floating In Exile

Floating In Exile

I am flying inside a dream
somewhere between
twilight’s dark indigo sky
and earth’s blackest ocean

I see a grey horizon
floating in exile
upon a moonlit lagoon
without a compass or a sundial

meanwhile
swimming across the Nile
they refile my profile
from butterfly to freestyle

then I wake up inside a crocodile
and wonder, have I the guile?
to walk another mile
toward the exit turnstile

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) January 2025

A Nest That Never Rests

A Nest That Never Rests

On this sombre Sunday morning
the day is typically quiet
and under the hanging grey clouds
there is a whispering cool breeze
for the birds to hover upon
where they uniquely monitor
the unpredictable world below

And while lazily meandering
I cannot help but wonder
what do the birds perceive?
of us, unappreciative homo-sapiens
as we continue to vandalize our sacred planet
and randomly ravage our own nest

“The Wild”, lyrics, Mumford & Sons