Where do the Children play?
Over at Moonwashed Musings, Eugi’s Weekly Prompts is: Either Or
Either Way
According to the book of Why
The sun will never die
And the moon is often seen
wearing a black tie
Either way
After the matinee
Where do the children play?
On our filthy ashtray
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, I am now writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Dream Harder”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. …
To Read my poem, please click on the link below to visit the article, at Coffee House Writers Magazine.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/dream-harder/
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Today’s Throwback poem is a rewrite of an old piece called “Paper Tigers” (Feb 2019)
The Poet’s Grotto
My writer’s studio, is the littered part of my bedroom
A paper tiger’s haven, has become a messy grotto
I am ruefully feeling muddled and befuddled
Pieces of paper and cardboard kites
Scatter the atmosphere like withered autumn leaves
Falling upon my untidy and cluttered archives
Scribbled words are yet to be decoded
Foolscap pages overwritten and eroded
Undefined and unlisted
Out of focus and twisted
Upside down and inside out
Uncategorized and full of self-doubt
My desk’s dreamy picture postcard
Looks like a moonscape’s junkyard
My poetic writing quill has been the mythological ruler
Showing no regard for my bedroom’s demeanour
I am sleeping covered in my hurdy gurdy verses
I cannot penetrate the stack of obscure foreign addresses
It is time to cast out the pretentious cosmic curses
Free myself of all unpublished jabberwocky
And let my imagination create a new poetic hard copy
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
I Write Her
Thank you to the editor of “Reflections & Revelations”, Susi Bocks, for nominating me …
Announcing The 2022 Pushcart Nominees!
It was wonderful to immerse myself again and fully digest the thoughts of all the pieces selected for the second volume of poetry of The Short of It in order to determine which works were to be nominated for this honour.
I am very happy to announce the following poets’ pieces were submitted to the Pushcart Prize Committee. Those selected were nominated for their contributions to the Reflections & Revelations—a collection of the best featured in the online publication.
Phantasma by Candice Louisa Daquin
remembering by Jane Ayres
The Sum is One by Ivor Steven
Old News Is Not Old News by Joni Caggiano
Winter’s Beauty by Lorraine Lewis
Anxiety by Radhika Puttige
My Poem: The Sum is One
The Sum is One (a Oddquain)
One
Sky above
Five oceans bind us
The one air we breathe comes from
Trees
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Please Note: All attached Photos presented in this article were taken by Derrick Knight, and he has kindly allowed me reproduce them here on my poetry site. You may visit his wonderful article, and site by clicking on this link >> https://derrickjknight.com/2023/10/02/moons-for-denzil/
Moon Dew
The moon slithered
into my bedroom
through a crack beside
her nostalgic heirloom
and lowered himself
onto my breastplate
stared into my eyes
and told me straight
“There is no need for tears
I am here to ease your fears
before I leave
I will give you
a loving spoonful
of magical moon dew
my universal cure
for the morning blues”
“Thank you, Mr. Moon”
as I joyfully sipped
from his silver spoon
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
The Moon’s Midnight Demise
The eclipsing clouds unfolded lengthwise
Masking the chastised moon’s demise
Falling, ostracized and downsized
Out of the mesmerized midnight sky
The fading moonlight capsized
And sunk into my tired eyes
Was I to be finally baptized
Or lying there, tranquillized
Waiting to be mechanized and dehumanized
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/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Today’s poem “Untethered”, is also an uncaptured piece that did not make the final list for the new book “Until Eyes Hear Sound”… hmmm … and I always like to get away in my “Itmims” spacecraft …
Untethered
With my back against the setting sun
I will fly toward a placid place, not yet overrun
Where the ground is not made of buried heads and limbs
I will untether my sturdy spacecraft Itmims*
And traverse the universe to discover a new world
Another planet of wonderment, yet unfurled
Where rivers and oceans are crystal clear
And unmasked, I can breathe the atmosphere
Where flowering plains are home to sacred trees
And native fauna roam wild and free
*Itmims, Ivor’s time machine in micro space
Coming Soon
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Oh, No! … Here in Australia, yesterday’s referendum, to give our First Nation’s people a ‘Voice’ in parliament was rejected … I think it’s a sad outcome for Australia, and I am feeling the hurt that my Aboriginal friends are experiencing today.
Oh, No!
Why cannot I be right?
Why is my right so wrong?
Why are the wrongs so strong?
How has racism become right?
Why does our blight?
Remain deaf dumb and blind!
Without any foresight!
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
I am posting this poem “again” … there is War “again” … more innocent lives will be “Lost”
Over at Weekly Prompts, the Weekend Challenge is the word, Lost … please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here
Featured Image Above: Gaza Strip border, Kibbutz Netiv Ha’Asara, Israel © Kai Wiendenhofer
Flying Bricks of War
There is a divisive brick wall
That stands harsh and tall
To stop people from breaking their fall
Then the leaders in ivory towers
Ceased talking about peace and flowers
And hurled bricks into that sandy strip
One brick after another brick
Flew from one side to the other
Smashing innocent children and mothers
Flying bricks crumbling into dust
Creating dirty clouds of mistrust
The walls of Babylon fell again
As brick upon brick crushed human brains
Brick upon brick filled the bloody drains
Brick upon brick killed and maimed
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Latitudinous
Today, spring swirled
And reversed back to cold
I was discombobulated
And felt sullenly too old
To cope with Mother Nature’s moodiness
And her mobility above the latitudinous
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 