Tag: Poetry/Australia

Torn Dust In My Lungs

Last night I attended the lowercase’s monthly poetry recital  event. The theme was “On The Bus”, and here’s a link to the poem I read out >>https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/sorry-we-caught-the-wrong-bus/    . After the show, as is usual for me, I ventured across the road, to Pistol Pete’s Blues bar, for my dose of live music. And wow, what a fabulous band happened to be performing. From Germany, “Hanne Kah”, and I’ve attached two songs of their’s below. As you might know, Ivor likes to have a chat, and Hanne and her band were a very friendly crew, and were happy to have some photos taken with me….. Oh, what a treat for me, and of course I gave them my poetry card, and bought a CD and T-shirt…… Then I stumbled home, and drafted this poem, which I finished this morning…… It’s probably a bit jumbled, but I say to myself…so-be-it….

Torn Dust In My Lungs 

 

Late in the afternoon, the moon is rising

Not the normal moon, silver and shining

But a colour of yellow mustard custard icing

Through the evenings smokey maze, dimly glowing

 

These foolish fires, have been merciless

They’ve torn apart our virgin land

Dusty embers in the sky, leftover evidence

Torn  from what was once beautiful and pristine

 

Hanne Kah’s CD “Y”, and you’ll find them at this Link >> https://www.facebook.com/hannekahband/

Appropriately I’m playing this song of Hanne Kah’s, “Dust In My Lungs”

 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

 

Busy Bees Will Rebuild Our Hives

We continue to live, under this smokey haze

As the brave firefighters, continue to fight day after day

I’m in a stunned daze, leaning here on my table

Knowing there’s thousands of burnt homes and stables

Feeling for the animals, perished and disabled

Crying for our native fauna, of fame and fable

 

From the ashes, our world will revive

Beyond the rain-clouds, busy bees will rebuild our hives

Green saplings  will replace the trees blackened towers

And underground seeds will grow into our earth’s new flowers

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

The Ripple Effect

I’m an old branch of driftwood on the beach

Why do they think the fire within me is out of reach

I see our universe in a blade of grass

And every barricaded window is only a piece of glass

Our combined pointed scratches will shatter panes into light

Every sharp word we write, will be another molar bite

Every tiny drop in the river, eventually flows into the sea

Every little ripple on the lake, begins a wave set free

 

Do not be quiet, speak proudly, and have a say

Our voices are amassing strength, do not delay

The cloudy silence, enforced by corporate powers

Cannot be the way to nurture our earth’s flowers

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

 

Has Our Horizon Gone?

The sky is a blanket of smoke

Today, I cannot see the sun

Has our horizon gone?

Mother nature is angry

Humans have forgotten about life’s harmony

And God, cannot stop their selfish greed

 

Have we burnt too many of earth’s bridges?

The animals didn’t make it down the ridges

Most wildlife has been traumatically diminished

Millions of native animals have perished

Nothing here, will ever be the same, in my lifetime

Tonight, in my sleep, I shall carry buckets of lime

 

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

“Long Way Home” Lyrics, by Tom Waits

Well I stumbled in the darkness
I’m lost and alone
Though I said I’d go before us
And show the way back home
There a light up ahead
I can’t hold onto her arm
Forgive me pretty baby but I always take the long way homeMoney’s just something you throw
Off the back of a train
Got a head full of lightning
A hat full of rain
And I know that I said
I’d never do it again
And I love you pretty baby but I always take the long way homeI put food on the table
And roof overhead
But I’d trade it all tomorrow
For the highway instead
Watch your back if I should tell you
Love’s the only thing I’ve ever known
One thing for sure pretty baby I always take the long way homeYou know I love you baby
More than the whole wide world
You are my woman
I know you are my pearl
Let’s go out past the party lights
Where we can finally be alone
Come with me and we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home

 

What If You’re Wrong?

Sit yourself at the round table

Cease your corporate bonding and bowing

Be good Leaders and stop the bleeding

What if you’re wrong?

 

What if we are right?

Have you delved into your conscience?

Have you felt your own heart beating?

Have you noticed the populace is pleading?

 

Do you understand our world’s environmental language?

Reject the greed, open up your minds and repair the damage

Do not leave the table

Do not wait until tomorrow

Answer the reality question

What if you’re wrong?

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

“What If I’m Wrong”, Lyrics, by Damien Rice

I could wrestle with tomorrow
Until tomorrow’s in the past
Because I have torn apart what’s beautiful
To prove that nothing lasts I have stayed locked behind these doors
To show there’s no way out
I got lost within the space between
The question and the doubt
I have built a wall between

What I believed and what is true
I have sacrificed the love I had
For power over you

I have convicted those who disagree
And walked over the weak
I have placed a gun within the mouth
Of those who dared to speak

And on an ordinary day
In an ordinary way
I have crushed the minds of children
With extraordinary shame

And I have carried on this war
Though no one wins an endless fight
I have claimed that God has guided me
And killed to prove I’m right

What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong
What if I’m wrong

Is this soul worth saving at all?
Cause if I lose my wings then surely I must fall
And the gods prayed to the gods they made

We could wrestle with tomorrow
until tomorrow’s in the past
We could tear apart what’s beautiful
To prove that nothing lasts

We could stay locked behind the doors
To show there’s no way out
We could get lost within the space between
The question and the doubt

But what if we’re wrong?

Under Burnt Fields

Under Burnt Fields

 

To the east, across the bay

The horizon is a smokey haze

To the west, across the plains

The paddocks have been smokey for days

I gaze up, towards the sun

The sky is a smokey grey

 

Beyond the horizon, there’s our Tasman Sea

Under the burnt fields, there awaits the seeds

Above the smokey clouds, there is a blue sky

 

I know the moon will bring the tide in again

I know the oceans will eventually produce rain

I know this living hell cannot last forever

I know this to be a message from mother nature

 

Do they hear her chasms crying

Do they understand! Stop the lying

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

Waiting

A big thank you to Kate of  “CalmKate” for inspiring me, and rekindling a poem I was working on last week, please visit her forthright article, “fires ignite justice” by clicking >>Here

Waiting

 

The earth is waiting

Sick of human’s, and their time wasting

 

Waiting for their promised cheers

Waiting for less destructive years

Will they give her resolutions of better times?

Will they read, Thor’s neon signs

Will they notice, a smoke covered sun?

Will they be able to breath the air, as a united one?

 

The earth cannot watch, nor wait

While human’s feed their own greedy plate

 

Why are they celebrating?

Like blind fools, that are always pretending

As if nothing is going wrong

Can’t they hear the whales crying songs?

Can’t they see the polar caps are melting?

Can’t they taste the venom of government’s lying?

 

In the following video/song, if you could metaphorically place earth and human’s between the lyrics, you might understand why I chose this song by Damien Rice..

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

 

 

Something New

The First Challenge of 2020 is Something New

From today the Word Prompts and Photo Challenges will cease to be separate. They have merged the twice-weekly challenges and given each of them the new combined title of Word/Photo Challenge. Please go visit their exciting new Format, by clicking on .>>HERE

Something New

 

I’m at that age, I don’t need material things

Too old for men’s fashion earrings

No more swanky clothes or fancy shoes

And I don’t like trendy blue and red tattoos

I’m now alone, and live a simple life

You could balance my belongs on a kitchen knife

These days I store myself in a computer cloud

Photos, music and my poems, of which I’m proud

 

Today’s six days after Christmas

But I’m still expecting undelivered business

An annual package from Philadelphia

That’s probably been misplaced by festive hysteria

Then I spot a parcel in the letterbox

Which I excitedly unwrap,, a glorious card and socks

Not just plain socks, but a sporty printed pair

Teary, I read the card, and my heart yearns to be there

 

 

Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 2020

Tullawalla #14

Tullawalla, Climb Each Stair

Hello dear readers and followers, again I’ve been arduously  preparing and typing, to produce my Fourteenth Tullawalla Poetry Booklet….. 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 organization, 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 submissions, I also donate to the MS Society…..Amazingly, there is a total of “573 poems”, in my collection of 14 Tullawalla Booklets. Anyhow the booklet is finally completed, and ready for the New Year, 2020 !!  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 web site page and I can chat about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla:  Climbing Each Stair”, and coincidently, one of my poems in the booklet “Time Needs No Command” was published by Geelong Writers Inc. on their blog site today!!  Click on this link >>  https://www.geelongwriters.org.au/paid-member-writing-features/time-needs-no-command/                    …. And here is the link to my website >> ivors20.wordpress.com

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Ivor Steven (c)  Jan 1st 2020