Tag: Nature

The Ancient Fern Survives

Featured Image Above: by Derrick Knight > https://derrickjknight.com/2022/06/10/rich-pickings/

The Images below: are from my courtyard ..





The Ancient Fern Survives




Selfish, unopened minds remain numbed

False eye-lashes are heavy and closed

Botoxed lips are silent and sealed

And elephant ears have been pegged out of sight




But there under our careless feet

The earth’s ferns have agelessly survived

Three hundred and sixty million years

Without changing the appearance of their golden leaves

That timelessly regenerate themselves

By naturally releasing their fertilising spores






Ivor Steven (c) June 2022

Walking in Winter Rain



Welcome to wintry Geelong

One day, shimmering sunshine

The next, cold as the South Pole


But there he sits

At the front door

Waiting for his morning walk


Ok Frankie “Let’s brave it”

The wind is frigid

The misty rain is hard

And my eyes are crying

Icy droplets in the snow


But I am not complaining

As I think about the children

Sheltering in their damp cellars

Hiding from Putin’s hard rain

A deluge of bombs and bullets

Callously sent to kill and maim




** Please enjoy the Waterboys song below, “Mad as the Mist and Snow”, the words are directly taken from the W B Yeats poem of the same and musically adapted by Mike Scott

The Waterboys Lyrics ( by,W B Yeats)

“Mad As The Mist And Snow”

Bolt and bar the shutter for the foul winds blow
Our minds are at their best this night and I seem to know
That everything outside us is mad as the mist and snow
That everything outside us is mad as the mist and snow.

Horace there by Homer stands, Plato stands below
And here is Tully’s open page, how many years ago
Were you and I, lads, mad as the mist and snow?
Were you and I, lads, mad as the mist and snow?

You ask what makes me sigh, what makes me shudder so
I shudder and I sigh to think that even Cicero
And many minded Homer were mad as the mist and snow
That Cicero and Homer were mad as the mist and snow
That Cicero and Homer were mad as the mist and snow
…






Ivor Steven ©  June 2022

Who Has The Foggiest? (a Limerick)

This week’s challenge on Weekly Prompts is: MISSING. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here .. and my Limerick below is in response to the prompt ‘Missing’


 
 
Who Has The Foggiest? (a Limerick) 




I cannot see the morning moon 

There’s no sunshine in my breakfast spoon 

The heaviest of fogs falls 

I cannot hear the birds’ calls 

Has our world condemned nature’s tune? 






Ivor Steven ©  May 2022

The Rear of Night (Revised)



My fading dawn was impossible to identify

A heavy fog had kidnapped my sky

Sabotaging my morning sunlight

The day disappeared in front of my eyes

The passing of night left a murky blight

There’s no start nor end to my blurred sight

Breathing in moist air, I gasp, “where’s the moon?”

Had my dismal forecast unravelled too soon?

Is this shadowless gloom?

The beginning of doom ?






Ivor Steven ©  May 2022

Sunflower Seeds (a Tanka)

Over at Weekly Prompts, the monthly Colour Challenge for May is:  Mellow Yellow. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> Here . Below is my “Tanka” response to their ‘Colour Prompt’ ..



Sunflower Seeds (a Tanka)



Blue skies were mellow

Fields were peaceful and yellow

Sunflowers grew free

Then foreign tanks squashed their seeds

On tomorrow’s scarred harrows






Ivor Steven (c) May 2022

Beyond Crickets And Mushrooms




Autumn has been dry and warm

And the earth remains cracked

Providing cosy homes for the field critters

The brown crickets are thriving

And hopping along shared tracks

Innocently dancing there

Beyond the murdering arms of war


Mushrooms are sprouting on the verges

Stoically poised on stumpy stems

Under sheltering white caps

Nature’s nutritional ground fruit

Innocently standing there

Beyond the murdering arms of war






Ivor Steven (c) April 2022

Sharpen Those Pencils

“As a poet, sometimes we confuse ourselves, Trying to create ashes, instead of fire ” – Loenard Cohen

I wrote this poem for “Go Dog Go Cafe’s , Make It Happen Thursday”, please go over and visit our fabulous site by clicking >> Here http://godoggocafe.com/2022/03/24/make-it-happen-thursday-8/



Sharpen Those Pencils


I like to write with a HB lead pencil
I enjoy the earthy feel of wood in my fingers
And the soft touch of carbon upon paper

During sharpening time, my mind ponders
About the origins of those timber shavings
And the history behind the carbon slithers
These tiny trival objects all evoke thoughts
Then the thoughts instigate words in my mind
And simply like that, my writing process begins

I never retire without my note-pad nearby
And a lead pencil as my trusty writing scribe
Sometimes heavy, other times light
A necessary sword to fight off a dark night






Ivor Steven (c) March 2022