My Legislator
Sun shines through the pines.
Wattlebirds in the wattletrees.
More crows than magpies.
Butterflies and dragonflies.
Rabbits digging for carrots.
Manuscripts under the eucalypts,
Writers lighting campfires.
Poetry — no need for a legislator.
Nature is my translator.
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
Who was In My Bed?
I always make my bed in the morning
As soon as I get up.
Surprise, surprise!
When I arrived home from outing
To the Geelong Short Play Festival show
There: my bed covers, we’re all ruffled up!
“Who had been sleeping in my bed?”
When I left my house
There was only one guy inside
To look after the place
While I was out having a good time
Yep! … you guessed it
That, guilty-looking, “Frankie”
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
“Surfacing from the sea of edits — Frankie keeps watch while I wrestle the waves of words.”
Drowning in Words
Emerging from a sea of black and white,
Normal fonts floating to the right,
Italic letters cascading to the left —
Manuscript time has been my head chef.
The last race on the card is over.
Proofreading is suffering from overexposure.
My foggy mind is resting under the cloud cover,
And I’m recuperating on a bed of clover.
“Proofreading fatigue meets sonic flood — Amanda Palmer’s ‘Drowning in the Sound’ echoes the emotional undertow of my own ‘Drowning in Words.’”
Ivor Steven © November 2025
Throwback Friday: Shadows Revisited. First shared in January 2025, this poem now finds its place as the opening to my upcoming collection, Time Hears No Sound.
The final proofreading of my upcoming poetry collection, Time Hears No Sound, is nearly complete. This weekend marks the last quiet read-through before I send it off to my editor and publisher (Judy). Meanwhile, my talented cover designer (Kerri) is crafting the book’s visual soul. There’s still a journey ahead, but everything is unfolding beautifully. Thank you for walking beside me.
Lost and Found – or – There, Here, and Where?
There
Lying on solid ground,
my shallow shadow wears no face
And utters no sound.
Here
My outline bears no carapace.
Where
On a graveside mound,
I see my darkness —
waiting to be found.
.
Until Eyes Hear Sound
Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)
Perceptions:
Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)
Tullawalla:
Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books
OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.
Ivor Steven © November 2025
A Warm and Wet Spring Day
Our ever-changing spring is here again.
We’ve been walking between affectionate raindrops,
dodging the refilling, familiar puddles,
and watching Mudlark’s waddle in the ponds
We’ve appreciated nature’s flirtatious ways
refreshing our frazzled faculties.
Ivor Steven © November 2025
Featured Image Above: Black-and-white photo of a street art mural depicting a tug-of-war between a Russian and Ukrainian soldier on a war memorial in Izyum, Ukraine. (Getty Images photo)
Hello, dear readers and followers. I write for Coffee House Writers magazine (USA) fortnightly, and my poem “Restore Rapport” is in this week’s edition.
Written in the quiet hours of early morning, Restore Rapport is a poetic protest against the machinery of war and the silence that surrounds it. Inspired by the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, this piece asks: Where is the understanding? What are innocent lives being sacrificed for?
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” — Einstein
To read the poem, please click the link below to visit my Coffee House Writers Magazine article.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/restore-rapport/
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Until Eyes Hear Sound
Lulu Books >> Until Eyes Hear Sound (lulu.com)
Perceptions:
Amazon >> Perceptions : Steven, Ivor, Knight, Derrick: Amazon.com.au: Books
Lulu Books >> Perceptions (lulu.com)
Tullawalla:
Amazon >> Tullawalla A Meeting Place Where My Empty Hands are Full of Memories and Rhymes : Steven, Ivor: Amazon.com.au: Books
OR: >> You may email me directly for a signed copy at
ivorrs20@gmail.com … and I can send you a PayPal account,
for the Book, plus Postage.
Ivor Steven © November 2025
“Time Hears No Sound”
Good news! I’ve completed the first draft of my manuscript and have begun the initial proofreading phase. I’m delighted to share that my previous editor and publisher, Judy Rankin, along with the talented cover designer and illustrator, Kerri Costello, have both agreed to join me on this new project. Their support means the world as I take this next step.
Manuscript Details: 189 poems, 177 pages, and 11,555 words.
Proofreading at the Cafe
There’s a manuscript in my knapsack,
Traveling along with every step I take
Proofreading is a necessary backtrack –
Page after page, in between coffee breaks,
Until the task is completed,
Even if I am feeling exhaustipated.
‘On the Nature of Daylight‘ by Max Richter — the kind of music I listen to while proofreading. Gentle, expansive, and quietly stirring, it helps me hear the silence between the words.
Ivor Steven (c) November 2025
Featured Image: This is evening’s Halloween Twilight Sky
This evening’s Halloween twilight sky
Sorry, no bats! But plenty of bird silhouettes in the Halloween sky …
A big thank you to Cheryl, the ‘Gulf Coast Poet’, for inspiring my whimsical poem.
>> What are You Afraid of? | Gulf Coast Poet
Who’s Afraid?
“Don’t be afraid”
It’s easier said than done
What about
The shady Everglades
And the deadly Nightshade
I, for one
Like my bats underdone
Ivor Steven (c) October 31st 2025
Today’s Throwback Friday poem, ‘This Lost Shadow’, was my first-ever published poem, in the anthology ‘Melpomene’, edited by Gwendolyn Taunton. Melpomene is a collection of poetry, prose and short fiction named after the Greek Muse of Tragedy. The central theme of the anthology is the beauty found in sorrow and the darker sides of human nature. Melpomene is broken into four sections: Liber Veneficium (Book of Magic), Liber Maeroris (Book of Sorrow), Liber Fatum (Book of Fate), and Liber Mortuorum (Book of Death). Each section contains both new and classic literature dealing with these themes. Authors in this volume include Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Taunton, Azsacra Zarathustra, Math Jones, Bernardo Sena, J. Karl Bogartte, C. B. Liddell, James WF Roberts, Christopher Pankhurst, H. A. Cledones, Tamas Nagyatadi Horvath, L. Alexander Carle, Bill Noble, Marg Howlet, Ivor Steven and Gene Banyard. Containing works both old and new, Melpomene offers a prime selection of works on the melancholic side of existence, the transformational beauty of the esoteric, occult secrets hidden in verse, sorrow, doom and the inevitable grasp of death. Melpomene will haunt the reader with a dark and unearthly beauty that is both forbidden and forlorn… >> https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Melpomene+by+Gwendolyn+Taunton&crid=3KH5IGU638GFK&sprefix=melpomene+by+gwendolyn+taunton%2Caps%2C903&ref=nb_sb_noss
This Lost Shadow
I’m writing this song for my body and for my soul.
I’m singing this song, about my return from the cold.
Why am I so tired? Is sixty so old?
Why am I so sore? Have I been far too bold?
I’m physically worn out and mentally torn.
I’m so worried about my every waking dawn.
I’m thinking of this quiet life, for you and for me.
I’m wondering if this vigilant life is too hard for me.
I’m pondering if this tragic life shall continue to be.
And feeling this bonded life, drifting out to sea.
I’m writing these words for everyone to see.
I’m writing this book about a single weeping tree.
Why am I so sleepy? Am I aging too quickly?
Why am I so sad? Who is looking after me?
I’m this furnace log, burning up with glee.
I’m this sinking boat, all about to flee.
I’m this overburdened camel, or a donkey maybe.
I’m this empty desert, a void, far as the eye can see.
I’m this broken branch, withering and dying, oh so slowly.
I’m this lost shadow, wandering this barren land furtively.
Ivor Steven (c) October 2025
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ~ Robert Frost
Today’s Screenplay, or, Reggae and Crochet
Needing a manuscript breakaway
Talking with the crows at midday
Was a positive and relaxing way
To invigorate my book’s soporific survey
Wishing for a secretary or “Girl Friday”
Then I could sit back and replay
More “Bob Marley” reggae
Or even try my hand at crochet
Ivor Steven (c) October 2025
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 