Tag: Poetry/Australia

A Collection, Nearly Time To Go Home

On “Weekly Prompts” their weekend challenge is: Story. Please go and visit their fabulous site by clicking >>HERE…. And below I’m continuing my “Story” about my trip to Philadelphia in May last year, via a collection of my poems and haiku’s …

 

Wet Flowers of May

 

Philadelphia rain

Like a rattling freight train

Wet fat drops

That didn’t stop

Watering flowers on mother’s day

Sharing the liquid joy of May

 

Haiku: Family History

Boxes of photos

Memory lane in my hands

Decades of stories

 

The Golden Pot

I’ve travelled to the end

Of yesterday’s rainbow

I found the golden pot was full

Full of warm hearts

The pot of hearts was overflowing

With ladles full of kindness

And their kindness was a cascading

River of magical rainbows

 

Haiku: We Lost The Sea

Bridges of dreams crossed

The ocean and river spanned

Waters of love found

Ivor Steven (c) May 2019

A Tune Of Success

On this weekend, a year ago, I was in the 4th week of my stay with my cousins in Philadelphia…. and I think my body was living on adrenaline……

 

A Tune Of Success

 

I’m sleeping in today

As I awake to a rainy Sunday

Cloudy, fat drops of grey

 

My body needs a rest

As a happy heart, pounds in my chest

Quietly, my soul beats a tune of success

 

I’m living in a hive of honey and bees

Covered by flowers and hugging trees

Once an injured mystery bird, now set free

 

 

Ivor Steven (c) 2019

Kingdom of Flowers

Remembering my wonderful trip to the magnificent “Longwood Gardens”, founded by Pierre S. du Pont, an hour west of Philadelphia, near Kennett Township. A day I shall never forget, especially with my two  fabulous cousins Terry and Maureen.

Kingdom of Flowers

I stood in His kingdom today

Of flowers and fragrances

Holding her colourful bouquet

Amazed by His stunning flower-bed

I gazed at heaven’s golden archway

Guarded by rows of leafy hedges

Underneath, lay edges of reds and blues

And soft petals of yellows and purples

I floated, from the ground cover shrubbery

To the canopy’s crested scenery

Where the horizon’s reflection

enchanted my eye

Sprinkling rainbows across His azure sky

 

 

Ivor Steven (c) 2019

A Flower-bed Of Dreams

 

A Flower-bed Of Dreams

 

The clouds parted, exposing a river bright blue

My hazy visions, suddenly became true

I’m standing in a flower-bed of dreams

I see strawberry fields covered in sun-beams

My veins feel like bubbling mountain streams

The family circle, has my heart bursting at the seams

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  April 2019

Feel The River Flow

This time last year I was in Philadelphia, visiting my cousins and their families (their children & grand-children), and enjoying the “time of my life”

 

Feel The River Flow

 

There’s more to see, and things to do

Steel bridges and worn cobblestones

Wide rivers and heavy highways

Waterfront piers and riverside parks

Ancient history and old monuments

Suburban Philadelphia and New Jersey cross-overs

Faraway cousins and new family’s found

Niece’s, nephews and grandchildren abound

Greeting hugs and welcoming hearts

Blissful times and precious memories

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May 2019

Arctic Winds

Hello dear readers, I’m taking a much needed rest and recharge break from writing….. and today I’m presenting this older poem… as a wintry blast rattled my door last night

Today’s poem is one I wrote three years ago, and I was fortunate enough to have the piece published by, ‘Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine’, back in January 2018,  a literary magazine for poets, and to all my readers/followers, I sincerely recommend that you visit/follow the Vita Brevis site,
https://vitabrevisliterature.com.

Artwork:  By Kerri Costello, Graphic Design Artist, my beautiful niece/second cousin, who lives in Philadelphia, she’s so very talented, and a very special person in my life, thank you Kerri.

 

Arctic Winds

 

I’m winter hibernating

Inside an Eskimo’s hut

Feeding only on fish oil

And frozen blue blood

My heart’s cold and dormant

Cowering under a dampened vestment

Wind-swept by a blizzard’s dust

Covered in icicles of my rust

My eyes are swollen rocks

Amidst polarised sockets

Terrorising all that’s passed

Like forgotten arctic icebergs

My veins are hollow crevasses

Inside a glaciers ice-flow

Sheering and groaning chasms

Like my memories deepest fjord

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May  2020

 

Beyond The Wreckage

Ashamedly, I closed my eyes

To keep out the darkening sky

Shadows have stolen my sight

And my dreams vanished in the night

 

As I knelt to open the crack

I saw a messiah in black

He said “Let there be light”

“The World is not your fight”

“The power of the sun breathes

Upon our life giving trees

Let the doves deliver your message

Your words of love, beyond the wreckage”

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May 2020

Tullawalla #17, My Shangri La

Hello dear readers and followers. Over the weekend, I’ve been arduously preparing and typing madly, to produce my Seventeenth Tullawalla Poetry Booklet….. A significant number for me, as Carole’s birthday falls on the 17th, and for some reason I’ve found this production, a very emotionally trying and tiring experience…. maybe it’s time for me to quit !!…Anyhow, for new readers that don’t know about these booklets, they are basically the reason why I write poetry. I produce the booklets for the sole purpose of raising funds for my favourite charity organisation, the MS Society, in Australia via the MS Charity Shop here in Geelong. And actually all money’s I receive for any of my poetry .via, submissions, I donate to the MS Society….  I’m proud to announce, that the sale of my “Tullawalla Booklets”, have now gone pass $1200.00, …  to all the lovely readers, who have donated, to help achieve such a wonderful amount,  a big heartfelt thank you, from “us” and the MS Society … …..Amazingly, there is now a total of  “693 poems”, in my collection of 17 Tullawalla Booklets. This booklet is finally completed, and ready for sale now !! As always, they are available for purchase, either as a hard copy or a PDF format….. All proceeds go to the MS Charity Shop, here in Geelong West….. Please contact me here through my website page and I can chat about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla:  “My Shangri La”…. maybe my final resting place             …. And here is the link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com

 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May 2020

The Forest Of Doubt

This Saturday, the weekend challenge on Weekly Prompts is: Walkabout. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> HERE.  And below is my response their prompt.

 

The Forest Of Doubt

 

Tonight, after dusk

I’ll be in the dark forest of Doubt

On a mystical walkabout

To find those elusive faeries

With their wings of mysterious star-dust

And I shall fill my empty pockets

Ready for Mothers Day tomorrow

Whereupon I’ll spread the magical sparkles

One handful on my mother’s headstone

The second one on my wife’s grave site

And as the same as other years gone by

For us, the faeries willing share their night

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May 2020

Looking Through A Window

What a dull way

To start a poem

“Looking through a window”

I was told by my teacher

If he saw a poem

Beginning with that line

He wouldn’t read the verse

Saying the words were over used
But in all honesty

Here I am

Sitting at my desk

“Looking through a window”
And the sky is a gloomy gray

So what else could I say

About this lonesome day

Another one of solitary downplay
Waiting patiently for a new entree

Writing this empty essay

Listening to the rains crescendo

“Looking through a window”

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  May 2020