Photos – Page 105 – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

Behind Your Mirror, Is in this weeks Coffee House Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I am now back writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine, after a 6 weak self-enforced break due to my personally hectic schedule during April and May. Luckily, I had my article ready for publication before I contracted ‘Covid’, and my poem “Behind Your Mirror”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to view my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/behind-your-mirror/

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Boy in a Bubble (Revised)

Another covid/isolation poem from March 2020, although my revised version here is almost a complete rewrite. Good news, today I made a small but noticeable improvement

Boy in a Bubble (Revised)

I’m living inside a bubble, unable to flee

Shadows are drifting away from me

Shivering silhouettes are beyond arms reach

I’m an isolated grain of sand from yesterday’s beach

I’m sleeping alone within my crazy daydreams

Thinking of life and wishing to be with my honey and cream*

This commonwealth of man has isolated the birds and bees

Now I’m sleepwalking, toward the forest’s hugging tree

*Honey and Cream: refers to “Cream and Honey” a poem from my book “Tullawalla”, >> https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Tullawalla&crid=1FWSLQYMP5NLQ&sprefix=tullawalla%2Caps%2C300&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Cream and Honey

I dream of what might have been
Dream of what I have not seen
Snow on top of lover’s hill
Cream filling my empty till

I had forgotten what could have been
Forgotten what I had already seen
Flowers on top of her wooden bier
Honey kisses, and my empty fear

I am dreaming of where I have been
Dreaming of what no-one is ever seen
Snowflakes silently melting in her palm
Cream and honey, my lover’s balm

Ivor Steven (c) March 2020

Survive Again

Another poem from those “Covid/Lockdown” times, March 2020 …
My Doctor has me on an anti-viral/covid medication to stop my situation from worsening, and hopefully, I’ll be improving soon …

Survive Again – (March 2020)

I’m here, in my writers room

Secure in this single cocoon

But my active mind’s wondering

And dreams, of freely wandering

Be patient I am told

Remember those bad days of old

When your body turned cold

Dead from a unworldly mould

You’re to be a good patient again

Remember those months of pain

When clots and spots invaded your brain

And how you survived, to see your spirit reign

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

The Sun Arose Again

Hi dear readers, I’m home with the ‘Covid’ virus, so I have been searching my files for some appropriate poems, and found this post from June 2020

“A wonderful surprise for me this morning and a lovely pick-me-up, to find that my poem “The Sun Arose Again”, had been published at ‘Red Wolf Journal’, and thank you to the editor, Irene, for her kind consideration of my submission…”

Red Wolf Journal

The Sun Arose Again
by Ivor Steven

There must be a number of silent masks around
Yesterday an old mask flew away at the speed of sound
From behind, the real pieces of what we perceive
Are leftover bones, bleached by sky and sea
Where the worn pebbles lingering in the hand
Fall gently upon lines drawn in the sand
And these new beginnings could be a heavenly gift
As white doves soar above the mourning cliffs

Perhaps the next awakening will be a peaceful one
Full of friendly compassion and wisdom
I’m lucky today, the sun arose again
To light up the hallway, despite the rain
I’ll be the first one to walk out the door
And the only one left here, to see her valour

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Throwback Friday, A Forever Coat (Revised)

Hi dear readers, unfortunately, I have tested “Positive” with ‘Covid’ … and will be resting up for a few weeks

A Forever Coat (Revised)

Her favourite coat still hangs in my wardrobe

Every time I open the robe’s door

I inherently see her family heirloom

A gift that was handed down from her grandmother

However, a gift she was not able to wear after her sickness began

Not once, over the next thirty years of her failing frailty

Sadly the declining illness brought about her finality

And nostalgically I held onto her favourite coat

I knew! We all knew. She was amazing

However, she is not going to mystically reappear

And the coat’s warmth will never again cover her gentle shoulders

Consciously I am not sure, why the coat remains

I have tried to give the coat away

To a deserving charity, and even a local actor’s group

Fortuitously her coat has not been accepted

Here in the wardrobe, the glorious fur coat stays

Along with the other trinkets of her forever spirit

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Defying the Odds

Featured Images: were taken at the local Kindergarten, where the school’s gardener lovingly maintains the beautiful garden, and she excitedly pointed out that, despite it being the start of winter, there were 2 sunflower plants ‘defying the odds’. and actually thriving and blooming … I smiled at her joyful enthusiasm, however inwardly I was silently weeping for those still suffereing in wartorn Ukraine.
So here today I am reposting “5” of my “Sunflower” poems relating to the “Ukrainian” war.

We Are the Carrier Pigeons

Are our Sunflowers wilting?

Can they survive, prosper, and regrow?

They will need more

Genuine assistance

Our promissory words

And tuneless birdsongs

Are not enough

We cannot forget them

We all need to speak up

Let our world of voices be heard

Draft a poem, a letter

Of protest, today, tomorrow

We are the carrier pigeons

May our messages for peace

Chime over the people of Russia

Defiantly (a Haiku)

Sunflowers do bloom

Through the war of destruction

Bravely defiant

An Unseeded Renewal (a Tanka)

Sunflowers of peace

We have not forgotten you

The war has not stopped

Killing fields are still on fire

Young stems need help to survive

A Banner of Sunflowers

Bann
look!

up there

above the War’s

darkest clouds

there is a blue banner

embroided with sunflowers

swaying

through a hole

in the eastern sky

bearing a message

of ‘Hello’

or is it ‘Goodbye’?

a sweeping reminder

from our Ancestors

“we feel your suffering and pain

from the merciless hard rain

blood filled rivers and cratered plains

smoke filled skylines and cracked windowpanes”

“however, we also know

beyond the broken horizon

the sunflower seeds of hope

will germinate again

and future seeds for peace

will regenerate a new campaign“

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 2023

A Cold Winter Moon

There, above the quivering horizon

I see a winter moon’s shadow

Falling from a cold lonely sky

There, above the afternoon’s icy dome

I see a winter moon’s silver spoon

Consuming tomes of unread poems

Falling from a vacant pillow in my bedroom

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Deadwood (a Tanka)

A Lightning bolt struck

My branches were almost dead

Steadfast, here I stood

Allowing roots to regroup

And rebuild my forest roof

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023

Winter Slaps Autumn in the Eye (a Tanka)

Winter Slaps Autumn In the Eye (a Tanka)

Time shortens in stride

Autumn leaves pepper the ground

Winter slaps the sky

Midday sun closes her eyes

Naked trees wisely survive

Tullawalla is Available From

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’

AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:

Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT

Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) May 2023