Tag: Music

Sage Bush At Guard Tower Twelve(Revised)

This week’s Wednesday Challenge on the “Weekly Prompts” site is the word BOUNDARIES. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >>HERE  . Below is my poem about the biggest social boundary every put in place on this planet !!

 

Sage Bush At Guard Tower Twelve

 

I’ve been on the run for weeks

Heading towards the Great Wall

From atop this steep hill

My nose tells me, I’m close

And I smell that distinctive sage aroma

Knowing, the sage bush is nearby

Below the gateway to guard tower twelve

My old bones shake and shiver

The Mongolians are closing quickly

Spears and arrows aquiver

 

Fear grips me, and I crawl low

Fingers grasping this granite boundary

Block after block, of the giant blockade

Frightened, I’m too scared to fall

Onto those deadly steel blades

And cold rugged rocks below

I clamber higher, step after step

Finally there above, I see my wish

The flowering sage bush

Mauve blooms bowing in the breeze

My chest sighs and heaves

I clear my lungs, and scream

Soon I’ll be free, as I see

Near the sage bush at guard tower twelve

The Emperor’s warriors, my reprieve

Saved, I fill the Royal message bag with sage leaves

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  April 2020.

Dreams of Hope

today there’s menacing trouble

one day we’ll fly out of our bubbles

 

hopefully people’s profanity

and selfish insanity

will cease after the matinee

and they’ll resurrect humanity

 

there shall be more grief

but there will be relief

when love will grow closer

between barriers and the waiter

 

in my courtyard you’ll exist

in the green leaves of hope

in my heart you’ll exist

in the hum of my souls hope

 

Featured Image: My fernery’s, Philodendron selloum, called ‘Hope’

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  April 2020

A Luxury of Green, Xanadu

This weekend the Saturday challenge from Weekly Prompts, and their monthly colour challenge for April is: Xanadu. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking > HERE

Above Images: Photos from my fernery, of the Philodendron Xanadu.

 

A Luxury of Green, Xanadu: A Cinquain* poem

 

Ancient

Kubla Khan times

A Palace of beauty

Mystical Xanadu city

Did thrive

 

*A Cinquain is 5 lines: 
Line 1: 2 syllables 
Line 2: 4 syllables 
Line 3: 6 syllables 
Line 4: 8 syllables 
Line 5: 2 syllables 

And here’s my favourite “Green” song, Leonard Cohen’s ‘Leaving Green Sleeves’

 

 

Another Day

The muted day is ambling by

Grey clouds blowing in the sky

Banks of rain tears are flowing down

I’m sheltering under my iron crown

 

I wonder about today and tomorrow

When are we to reappear from our burrows

Winter approaches to cool the ground

Autumn colours are vanishing uncrowned

The super-bug remains lingering in the air

And Scientist are striving to snuffle this virus affair

 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  April 2020

You Cannot Shoot Or Electrocute It

This week’s Wednesday Challenge on Weekly Prompts, is the word WARY. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here . Below is my poem about being ‘Wary’

 

You Cannot Shoot Or Electrocute It

 

I see grey clouds drifting across the sky

And I hear the great white bear continue to lie

You cannot shoot it

Nor can you electrocute it

I cannot hear your bullets blazing

Nor can your bombs do the erasing

Your insincere words cannot stop it

I’m wary of your falsehoods, that hide it

I cannot see your pain and fears

Nor can I see your sympathetic tears

Your money keeps you safe in the ivory tower

But will your money send the people flowers

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  March 2020

Bob Dylan, wrote these profound lyrics 50 years ago…

“All Along The Watchtower”

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.””No reason to get excited”, the thief, he kindly spoke,
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”.All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

 

Her Kindness

A poem for Gina, a hard working angel at the hospital. Last night my dreams echoed her kindness….And a big thank you to everyone working in the health care system.

 

Her Kindness

 

I can hear storm clouds rumbling

But I cannot hear the darkness

I can see a tired sun fading

But I cannot see the gloominess

I can say help those who are crying

But I cannot say I am fearless

But I will not sit and be silent

My hands ring the bells of kindness

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  March 2020

What? Escalation Again

This weekend “The Weekly Prompt” challenge is slightly different from the norm; They have chosen a question, and the question is ‘What is it?‘ Please go and check out their fabulous site by clicking >>HERE…. Above, in the Feature Image, is my photo of “What is it?” , and below is my poem about the object in the photo ??

 

What? Escalation Again

 

Is this the germ?

That mysterious virus

Or maybe the cure

Our miracle antibiotic

Why profoundly round?

A slippery pill of renown

Why be so colourful?

The answers a rainbow, upside down

 

Red’s for blood

Yellow’s our solar sun

Blue for the ocean that surrounds

What about the black crosses?

Sorry, the gravestones

Representing the losses

 

An insightful imagination

Of a sixteen year-old

During the cold-war escalation

His world then, was young and bold

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  March 2020

The Communities Leap Of Faith. “Pako Festa”, Geelong

Over on Weekly Prompts, this weekend’s challenge is:  Leap. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking >>HERE

Yesterday (Saturday), I went to Geelong’s annual Pako Festa event, a gathering, celebrating the colourful multicultural societies that live in harmony within Geelong’s community. These people who have come from all around the world, have taken a giant leap of faith to resettle their lives here in Geelong. There were over 25 different nationalities represent in the glorious parade, and I’ll let my photos below do all the talking today….. I hope there’s not too many photos, but as you can imagine the parade took well over an hour to go pass me !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  March 2020