Saturday Night Bedtime Music

It’s Saturday evening here at Tullawalla in Geelong, I’m going to bed soon, to do some reading, and listen to my music, and some quiet bush rhythm music from Oka. Then next, as I’m getting into bed, to be “Safe & Sound” a beautiful piece from composer William Joseph.

 

 

Goodnight, sweet dreams.

Featured picture: That’s my temporary little computer, the small black box on the left.

Sleepless.

 

Weekly Prompts

Your second chance to be creative.  This Weeks Word Prompt:  Review

                                                                                                                                                              I’ve been mailing off my submissions to magazines and anthologies lately, and I had to Review my comprehensive collection of poems, and go through the process of personally selecting some of my poems for the submissions. And then I have the waiting, waiting to find out if I’ve been successful or NOT !!. I’m not sure how to present the rest of this article, I suppose the form of listing my works to each Magazine/Anthology might show how much time and effort goes into these submission, and why I sometimes shun away from doing submissions, and I also find the whole process personally daunting and taxing on my emotions, putting myself out there is hurdle of confidence that I find hard to jump.

Here’s A list of my Submissions for the month.

Vita Brevis Magazine

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/beyond-the-trapdoor/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/05/02/what-is-one-of-the-worst-emotional-storms-youve-weathered-in-your-life/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/04/11/circumference/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/crystal-clear-shallows/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/a-midday-sun/

The Drabble.

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/a-friend-2/

Geelong Writers Anthology 2018

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/down-along-the-river-bed/

and “Beyond The Trap Door”

Geelong Poetry Anthology 2018

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/singing-a-song-for-you/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/waterways-reposted-and-re-edited/

“Crystal Clear Shallows”

“A Friend”

Write About  (A Combine Book Published by 2 Writers Groups, Belmont Page and Write About) These 10 poems will be published in the book.

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/tall-ships-an-encore/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/07/05/times-awry/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/my-blue-statice-blooms-today/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/vaults-and-bookcases-2/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/07/06/a-single-weeping-tree-a-villanelle/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/burning-the-fears/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/03/10/rabbit-stew-and-broken-plates/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/if-only-walls-could-talk/

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/05/02/what-is-one-of-the-worst-emotional-storms-youve-weathered-in-your-life/

“Circumference”

 

Thank you for your patience, and of course all my submission are presented via Word Online documents. On review, I think I’ll be giving my submission frenzy a rest !! Let us not be silent.

https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/against-the-next-war/

 

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Tonight’s Bedtime Song

I’m tired tonight, my plumber’s back is aching, my poet’s pen is dry, my heart is yearning, my mind is thinking of peace, and my soul is singing the same old tune. I hope you like this song, and the lyrics by Nick Cave are worth a read.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Lyrics

“Hallelujah”

On the first day of May I took to the road
I’d been staring out the window most of the morning
I’d watched the rain claw at the glass
And a vicious wind blew hard and fast
I should have taken it as a warning
As a warning As a warning
As a warning

I’d given my nurse the weekend off
My meals were ill prepared
My typewriter had turned mute as a tomb
And my piano crouched in the corner of my room
With all its teeth bared
All its teeth bared All its teeth bared
All its teeth bared.

Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah

I left my house without my coat
Something my nurse would not have allowed
And I took the small roads out of town
And I passed a cow and the cow was brown
And my pyjamas clung to me like a shroud
Like a shroud Like a shroud
Like a shroud

There rose before me a little house
With all hope and dreams kept within
A woman’s voice close to my ear
Said, “Why don’t you come in here?”
“You looked soaked to the skin”
Soaked to the skin Soaked to the skin
Soaked to the skin

Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah

I turned to the woman and the woman was young
I extended a hearty salutation
But I knew if my nurse had been here
She would never in a thousand years
Permit me to accept that invitation
Invitation That invitation
That invitation

Now, you might think it wise to risk it all
Throw caution to the reckless wind
But with her hot cocoa and her medication
My nurse had been my one salvation
So I turned back home
I turned back home I turned back home
Singing my song

Hallelujah
The tears are welling in my eyes again
Hallelujah
I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
Hallelujah
And twenty pretty girls to carry
them down
Hallelujah
And twenty deep holes to bury them in
Hallelujah
The tears are welling in my eyes again
Hallelujah
I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
Hallelujah
And twenty pretty girls to carry them down
Hallelujah
And twenty deep holes to bury them in

 

 

Let Us Climb

Climb Aboard, (Introduction by, Jane Basil)
all who wish an end to war are welcome;
we beg you to share our message of peace,
that it may reach across the wildest desert,
weave through cities, travel with the waves of the seas
that stroke our shores and soak into our sands.
Let it grow to encompass our nurturing planet;
let every peacemaker of every nation join hands,
and be embraced with love in return.
Let peace become a pandemic
the like of which we have never known.

This was written for our peace campaign which was dreamed up by my amazing friend Paul Sunstone. Yep – remember the name; that man has greatness in him. We want the campaign to go viral. Share his post (see link below) and/or write a post of your own.

Click <<<<<<<HERE>>>>>> to find out more

and find even <<<<<<<MORE>>>>>>>   <——— there

The above introduction is copied directly from Jane Basil’s blog site and her post  “Climb Aboard”  

Climb Aboard

Below an older poem of mine from over 10 years ago, and I’m afraid nothing has changed, and Click onto “Return The Bullets” title to view Paul Sunstone’s latest post.

Return The Bullets

The mind awakens to secret cannons shattering my bed.

All the violence of the worlds pounding inside my head.

The killing and the maiming of all the innocents who fled.

What happens when all the little lambs are slaughtered.

When the people’s of all religions and creed are dead.

And we can’t return the murdering bullets back into the barrel.

I’m afraid.

The backyard stairway is far too steep to climb.

The hand rails are way out of reach to find.

And the public change-room windows are covered with bars.

Now encircling the city hall, the security backdoor is ajar.

Entering the marble aisle, the White-room appears vacant.

And guileful leaders have run, leaving a chasm of gloomy dark.

I’m wondering.

Where to go, the healing house is full of ugly holes.

The citizens cowering in shadows behind splintered lighting poles.

And the crumbling streets are awash with rivers of leftover blood.

Now the warring bosses have to fight amongst themselves.

Throwing poison pens and paper darts at each other.

Never bruised nor battered, using ivory towers as cover.

I’m terrified.

The dusty mushroom cloud, slowly settles on the barren ground.

With sands of distant lands, shifting into every nook and cranny.

We need the good Doctor, to help us cure these alien scourges.

And foreigners arriving upon waves of our neighbouring seas.

The deathly TV images, wrongly implanted for all to see.

As the press only gossip and drivel with selfish glee.

I’m stupefied.

The guns of freedom lands, haven’t even stopped the cull.

Death to friends or foe, no matter, to the rulers from above.

Their only rules, the poor and weak to be kept totally down trodden.

One day the surviving meek shall inherit their radioactive dirt.

And the rich will feast upon their own contaminated bread.

And we’ll never return the murdering bullets back into the barrel.

 

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Time Travelers

For my readers, followers, friends and all those who doubt my connection to our unidentified Aliens, my “Mothership” landed for a visit today, to check-up on how I was handling the planet earth’s present dilemmas, and I’m afraid I had to report that the situation here is stagnant and quite grim.  

Zap, a gigantic lightening bolt precedes a mystical power surge

Traversing the cobalt skies, like horizontally sleek outriggers

Vividly scoring chords to hang our every word on

Like musical lines, writing out our lost dreams and regrets

 

Sound-waves echoing, poles apart, going north, south, east and west

Conducting iridescent lights over our purple and orange sunset

Vibrating quasars, pulsating from deeply inside, outer-space

Focusing towards the huge magnetic Receiving Dish, signalling “An Arrival”

 

 

Recording a celestial traveler, singing with an angel’s voice

Resonating sweetly, like Handel’s, Messiah Hallelujah Chorus

Translated into our universal language of symphonic sound

Digitally televised for the world’s population to simultaneously view

 

The Super-Sonic Cosmic message to be heard loud and clear

“We’ve returned to your degraded planet earth”

“To again, bestow upon you, Peace And Goodwill”

“Like we’ve done before, Eons of Millenniums ago”

 

Ivor Steven  (c)

Beyond Today There Is Tomorrow

Beyond the broken porthole

I stand on a basin pedestal

I’m going down with the ship

She left the wreck last week

Left my bones in the bathroom

Drowning in the blue lagoon

**********

Last night there was a fire down the street

On the other side of the creek

I heard the commotion in my sleep

The old farmhouse was burnt to the ground

And lingering smoke on the water whispered sounds

Of memories lost and a loyal dachshund

***********

The Alien poet’s brain

Is a fascinating place

A distant surreal view

Hooked, like a fish on a line

Laying tomorrows foundations

On old pieces of used paper

Using dried up ink as mortar

And the sky is the work’s next brick

Remembering yesterdays sunshine

Is today’s dawn and beyond

 

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Quote #5, And, Quote #6

            “The sound of nature

            the voice of our future

              rings loud and clear

the Symphony of life we need to hear”       

– Ivor Steven

 

                        **********

 

 ” Where there is nature, there is life

       without nature there is no life”             

– Ivor Steven

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

 

Words, Lost And Found

When your senses are blind

Driving you out of your mind

How do you find that word

Unique and unheard

Lost, gone out of your head

Not there, under your unmade bed

Nor between your untidy sheets

Removed during your midnight heat

You’ve searched along every note-pad line

Flicked through grandpa’s dictionary overtime

The missing word is yet to be found

Your dog stares at you, as if you’re unsound

It’s somewhere, you wrote it down

The word, to be your poem’s crown

Shaking your brain, side to side

Rattle, rattle, adjectives clash inside

Suddenly you remember

It’s something about December

How could you forget

The fallen Refugee reject

Cutting himself on his old sword

Swearing, “restitution”, is the word

Ivor Steven (c) 2018

Across The Hallway

 Sunday morning bliss 

A memory, a wish 

Confirmation, of a promise 

A togetherness kiss 

 

My tears do dwell 

I was under her spell 

There’s no need for show and tell 

You know my heart well 

 

There’s a memory lane 

Within my sighing veins 

Pumping slowly, flowing deep 

A river of dreams that never sleep 

 

Visions of a begone life 

A joyful husband and wife 

The glory days are gone 

Happily, I’ve begun to move on 

And remember with fondness 

Our first, and last kiss 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  2018