Tag: Memories

Along This Road

As the evening sky burned low, it carried me back to a younger road — one lit with promise, before time dimmed the colours I thought would last.

Today, the Weekend Challenge on Weekly Prompts is the word “Interlude.” To visit their fabulous site, please click >> Here


Along This Road


Once upon a time —
when I was young, and life glowed,
I came along this road
where twilight’s crimson light
meets the edge of night.

Beyond once upon a time,
I saw her candle of joy turn white,
and her happy fire fell out of sight.
Thereafter, her merciless plight
became an ongoing, cruel fight.







Ivor Steven ©  April 2026

Today

Today arrived with a hush, stirring old memories and opening a space to sit with love and loss.




Today

Today,
the misty clouds are not moving,
and my world has stopped rotating.

Today,
time became becalmed
in a blue lagoon
full of my memories and rhymes

Today
I felt her angelic soul reminding me,
“Stay there for a while longer,
let me linger in your loving heartbeat.





I’ll let this song carry the feeling that lingers.





Ivor Steven ©  April 2026

Throwback Friday, Under the Snow (a Revisit)

A special poem I wrote, after I’d taken my Lady to the hospital for the last time, on the day of her 65th birthday, fourteen years ago. 

Hello Carole, time goes by, and my heart has not moved …


Under The Snow

We emanate to a birthday.
We deflate to a final day.
Birthdays, they all come, they all go.
Birthdays, in the sunshine, under the snow.
Birthdays, slow to mature, quickly an eon.
Birthdays, before we are born, after we are gone.
Birthdays, hanging on by a breath.
Birthdays, nailed to a cross ’til death.
What does it all mean to be alive and cry?
What does it all mean to live and to die?






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Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.


Ivor Steven ©  April 2026

Not Good, But I’m Ok (a Tanka)

On this Good Friday morning, a lone bird drifts beneath the sun — a small, steady shape moving through a world that still carries its wounds. Watching it, I felt the familiar pull of memory, the long years of care, love, and quiet endurance that shaped my life. This Tanka rose from that moment, from that tear in the sky, and the music below holds the same fragile ache — a home built from devotion, loss, and the tenderness that remains.





Not Good, But I’m Ok (a Tanka)


I fly beneath you
On this Good Friday morning,
And I spy a tear
In the corner of your eye —
Is our World a sinful stye?








Ivor Steven ©  April 2026

This week’s Coffee House Writers Magazine features my new poem, “Between, Inside, and Beyond.”

Featured Image Above: is of my silver teaspoon with the initials “MS” (Multiple Sclerosis) embossed on the handle button.


Hello, dear readers and followers. I contribute to Coffee House Writers magazine (USA) every second week, and I’m delighted to share that my latest poem, “Between, Inside, and Beyond,” appears in the new issue. You can read it by following the link below.
>> Between, Inside, and Beyond – Coffee House Writers

And a big thank you to Nancy >> Knocking: A Thursday Inspiration – The Elephant’s Trunk, whose intriguing article inspired the opening stanza of my poem.





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Until Eyes Hear Sound

Amazon >> Amazon.com : 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 … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.


Ivor Steven ©  March 2026

When Three Times Three Equalled Minus Three

Featured Image Above: A painting of ‘Three Flowers’, by Carole Steven.

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

“Three times, ‘Once Upon a Time” has been difficult to redefine …“





Tullawalla:

Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books



Ivor Steven ©  March 2026

Throwback Friday, A Chalice of Champagne, by Ivor Steven

Today’s Throwback Friday Poem is another poem from my book “Tullawalla”, which I originally wrote in September 2019


A Chalice of Champagne (Tullawalla, page 103)

Once upon a time
In the days of rhyme
When learning to climb
I saw my neon sign
Slowly die by design

An angel’s teardrop fell
Ringing the church bell
And missing my empty well
From the tower of song, I wanted to yell
But life does not let you dwell

Despite the annual September rain
I trekked over flooded plains
Avoiding delta swamps of pain
Scaling the same old mountain again
Searching for our chalice of champagne





Ivor Steven (c) September 2025

Today, Twenty-Five Years Ago (a Tanka)




Today, Twenty-Five Years Ago (a Tanka)

Once upon a time
In a land of ice and rhyme
Darkness was my crime
When a rift of hollow mime
Ravaged my body and mind


“The Throwback poem that began the great Rowback”




Who’s Left to Row the Boat

The storms are too many to count
Emotional lows had weathered me out
Her journey with MS was a struggle
How much lower could our lives sink

After fourteen years of our battles, I suffered a Stroke
An ambulance came, my brain was in a boat
Floating out to sea, overboard and panic-stricken
I wasn’t swimming, barely awake, and drifting
I had fallen, nothing was working, and not talking
She’s crying, I’m sobbing, my heart is dying
And who’s left to row the boat, I’m thinking
I was jabbed with a needle and silently sleeping

I awoke a day later, in hospital, feeling wasted
My face was limp, mouth parched, was that death I tasted
My mind was active, I thought, where is she
I knew I was bad; the room was all blurry to me
Strong anxieties had set in, I needed to know
Nurses came to me, I pleaded, I wanted to go
“Help me to see her, just give my bed a tow
Please let me go, before I’m covered in snow”





Ivor Steven (c) September 20th, 2025