Where It All Began

Some mornings begin in silence, before memory fully wakes, and the hush before daylight becomes a bridge between darkness and light



And, For Sadje’s #Whatdoyousee #331 – 9 March 2026 – My ‘Poem’ closely represented Sadje’s first Image.

To visit Sadje’s fabulous site, please click >> Here




Where It All Began


It was only six-twenty.
I could not remember
how my bowl became empty.

What is this strange condition?
Then I shifted the position
of my inner opposition
by refining the leftover light
from within the dark of night –
when silence suspends time –
into the musical sounds of rhyme.

Am I too late to catch the worm,
or beyond time’s sonic boom?
Is there still more to learn?








Ivor Steven ©  March 2026

Who Shines On Me?

Feature Image Above: Created by Copilot and me
The moon rises quietly, guiding my cross-eyed downside away from the world’s wide landslide.





Who Shines On Me?

Who is he, who is she,
who shines on me
so forlornly?

There, from the other side
of the sky’s great divide,
where eveningtide
cannot be denied.

Then the twilight moon guided
my cross-eyed downside
away from the world’s wide
and worsening landslide.




For the quiet places where the moon lifts us beyond what we think we see.




Ivor Steven ©  March 2026

The Ravens Warning (a Tanka)

Feature Image Above: Created by Copilot and me.


“Ravens fly through the iron‑gate sky, carrying warnings only the attentive will hear.”


The Ravens Warning (a Tanka)

Stealthily they fly,
below the iron‑gate sky—
loud and steely‑eyed.
Ravens warn all passersby:
beware of that sly bad guy.




Under an iron‑gate sky, her voice rises like a warning carried on dark wings




Ivor Steven ©  February 2026



What’s the Difference

Feature Image Above: was created by Copilot and me. The trials and tribulations of the aging process — where questions deepen, and the hills keep rising.

After flooding my kitchen last night (again), I found myself wondering where simple mistakes end, and something more unsettling begins. This poem grew out of that quiet, uneasy space — the place where aging, memory, and meaning start to blur at the edges.



What’s the Difference


What’s the gap
Between insanity and humanity
Is there a difference
Between oblivion and infinity

What’s the gap
Between failure and fruition
Is there a difference
Between carelessness and forgetfulness

What’s the gap
Between here and there
Is there a difference
Between thoughtlessness and memory loss

What’s the gap
Between now and then
Is there a difference
Between Alzheimer’s and Dementia




Some days, the questions echo louder than the answers.





Ivor Steven ©  February 2026

The Elusive Crossroad

Featured Image Above: wae created by Copilot and me.


At the edge of dusk, every path feels like a crossroad.”



The Elusive Crossroad


Beyond the evening’s projecting twilight zone,
I’m looking for this planet’s bright side of the moon.

I observe a strange stratosphere
That does not belong here, nor there.

Between now and the universe’s next episode,
I perceive a mirage of cosmic cathodes,
Faithlessly obscuring eternity’s elusive crossroad.









Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

When Words Wear Chains

Feature Image Above: was created by Copilot and me.

Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word “Squish”
To visit their fabulous site, please click >>Hereand I think everything about censorship is awfully “Squishy.”


Nancy’s story on The Elephant’s Trunk [https://theelephantstrunk.org/2026/01/20/rdp-tuesday-disapprove/ ] stirred an old frustration in me — how easily free expression can be twisted, muted, or dismissed. I left a brief comment there, but the idea continued to nag at me throughout the afternoon. Sitting in a quiet corner of the café, I found myself shaping those few lines into something fuller, a small protest poem about the weight of censorship and the stubborn resilience of words. This is where that moment led.



When Words Wear Chains


Words wearing chains,
Pages awash in teary rain;
Quills feel the pain,
Like wisdom without veins
Inside lifeless brains.

How to explain
The inhumane
Of censorship’s careering train,
While the reigning regimes
Sip on foreign champagne.








Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

What Colour is the Edge?

Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me.

An image and song that drifts along the same edge this poem explores — between light, shadow, and the unknown.


What Colour is the Edge?


I ask myself,
Is there an edge?
Is it the golden sun rising,
or the hessian sun setting?
Is it the dark horizon
beyond the deep blue ocean?

Then I wonder,
What is the edge?
Is it the black chasm
beyond the starry universe,
or is it the white light
when time sees no night?






Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

On the Edge of Finality


A small reflection on the strange path from understanding to uncertainty, and the fragile line between what feels real and what feels lost.



On the Edge of Finality


Physically,
and enigmatically,
Scaling life’s realities
has critically
reached obscurity.

Combined with humanity’s
vanity, inanity, and insanity
and lack of morality –
brutally –
finality
is not an impossibility.







Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

Why Worry?



Gigi’s poem >> https://gigisrantsandraves.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/have-you-noticed , opened a familiar ache — the sense of being small inside a vast, grinding system. This poem rose from that feeling, with Lisa O’Neill’s “Rock The Machine” humming at its edges.


Why Worry?



Government – Corporate piracy –
Rife everywhere in our binary society.
Ironically, our privacy is *actively*
The policy of every dynasty’s refinery.
Corruption: slavery, bribery, impiety.
And privately, I worry about the impropriety,
The calamity’s spidery finality.









Ivor Steven ©  January 2026

An Albatross and the Saboteurs

Featured Image Above: Created by Copilot and me.

This poem grew from a series of poetic anecdotes I first shared as comments on fellow bloggers’ posts. In stanza order, they were inspired by:

David >> Back to the soil, or: Stretching forth – The Skeptic’s Kaddish
Eugi >> Wordless Wednesday – Poesy Perspectives
Susi >> Erred – I Write Her
VJ >> Turning (tanka) – One Woman’s Quest


An Albatross and the Saboteurs

Underneath all the mounds,
we are all bound together
by the same ground,
whether we are lost or found.

The packaging is losing its gloss,
but the contents are not lost –
still spirited like an albatross.

Bluffers and shovers
Swoop like overprotective plovers,
act like “Big Brother,”
ring the buzzer,
usher out the duffers,
and snuffer the crushers.

Oh, so many detours
and hidden contours.
Who are these saboteurs?




Lisa O’Neill’s music has a way of grounding us in what matters. This song, in particular, feels like a quiet reckoning—an honest look at the world and the winds that shape it.


Lisa O’Neill, The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right, Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I’ve lately been thinking of an old friend
Who I haven’t seen in a while
Last night I dreamed that the same friend
Passed without sayin’ goodbye

[Verse 2]
Oh, to be wild like the roses
Oh, to be red with delight
My blood is red out of fury
The wind doesn’t blow this far right

[Verse 3]
Some terrors are born out of nature
Some terrors are born overnight
Some terrors are born out of leaders
With their eye on a different prize

[Verse 4]
The thing is, some leaders are players
And players sometimes can be clowns
And clowns then sometimes can be dangerous
When they’re there and yet they can’t be found

[Verse 5]
The Big Mac, the big man, the big bomb
The power of money and lies
The power of fear in the people
The wind doesn’t blow this far right

[Verse 6]
Some terrors are born out of nature
Some terrors are born overnight
Some terrors are born out of leaders
With their eye on a different prize

[Verse 7]
Oh, to be wild like the roses
Oh, to be red with delight
My blood is red out of fury
The wind doesn’t blow this far right

[Verse 8]
Drill, baby, drill
Don’t, baby, don’t
Don’t you hear the winds, feel the fires as they burn?
Beautiful planet, beautiful home
Drill, baby, drill
Don’t, baby, don’t

[Verse 9]
Kill, baby, kill
Don’t, baby, don’t
Don’t you hear the kids as you blindly bulldoze on?
Beautiful children, starved to the bone
Kill, baby, kill
Don’t, baby, don’t
Kill, baby, kill
Don’t, baby, don’t



Ivor Steven  ©  January 2026