Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “On Days Like These”, whch is an Assonance style of poetry, 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/on-days-like-these/
If you are looking for some recommended reading, I have the following book reviews for you from Merril D. Smith, and Ivor Steven/Derrick Knight. Curl up with a cup of coffee and read on…
River Ghosts by Merril D. Smith
This delightful volume of over 50 original poems is Merril’s debut poetry collection, published by Nightingale and Sparrow Press. The striking cover was designed by Merril’s child Jay Smith, maintaining the strong family connection which runs throughout this book, dedicated to the memory of the author’s mother, Sylvia L. Schreiber.
The book is haunted by ghosts, from the title poem onwards:
ghosts in dusty grass sit still in the long ago, a gull’s laugh breaks the silence… echoes
These echoes are a recurring and unifying theme throughout the book, in keeping with the author’s dedication to her mother, whose “laugh still echoes.”
There are echoes of the distant past, in poems such as ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ and ‘Jawbone: Homo Sapiens,’ which display Merril’s interest in, and strong connection with, ancient history:
His epitaph, “eight teeth, one broken.” Not living, no longer here, yet not completely gone.
True, too, of the skeletons of the more recent past. ‘Observe, And Again’ carries echoes of the Holocaust:
Freighted bodies bound for the unknown—
a train to hell where fear is the constant.
Atrocities prefigured in ‘The Pogrom:’
and I do carry within me the burnt ruins
of that long-ago pogrom—
an incipient conflagration—who knows?
All levels of history and deep time are here, from human history to the evolution of the universe; subjects close to my heart, as is the historical reputation of women, so thoughtfully examined in ‘Through the Ages, She Is Blamed:’
scared of her knowledge, scared if she’s free those named and nameless who do not see it is they, not she, who commit the atrocities.
There is so much to love in this collection! I could go on, but I encourage you to discover this stunning debut for yourself: River Ghosts is available from Amazon.
Perceptions by Ivor Steven and Derrick Knight
Perceptions is a cross-continental collaboration from poet Ivor Steven (Australia) and photographer Derrick J. Knight (United Kingdom). Here are dragons, faeries, foals and swans captured in verse and image, which complement one another perfectly. The images are predominantly of nature, and perhaps reflect humanity’s struggle to find a place within the natural world, in the ruins of so-called ‘progress’, as evinced by Ivor’s poem, ‘Mankind’s Dirty Hands:’
within nature’s naked forest waiting for mankind’s dirty hands to stop the desert sands from ravaging the last strands of what remains hanging over our land
The poems are a mixture of haiku, senryu and longer poems featuring Ivor’s trademark end-rhymes:
All the world is green within my midday dream please, do not disturb me let me sleep, let me be (from the poem, ‘Let It Be’)
Other contributors who deserve credit are Derrick’s wife, Jackie Knight, who has provided some excellent photography (I particularly like her images of birds) and of course, Ivor’s niece, Kerri Costello, who designed the cover, and linked the book to yet another continent (she lives in the US).
The book (available from Lulu) is a fortuitous combination of verse and image. Despite his own advice to the contrary in the section ‘Do not quote me,’ I will end with what strikes me as a most pertinent quote from Ivor:
“A poet following a poet, gives you poetry in motion.”
It is a testament to the friendships formed on WordPress that these two artists have been able to collaborate successfully and bring this globe-spanning project to fruition!
Happy Reading, Ingrid
Again, Thank You Ingrid, and here is a poem you mentioned in your review …
There Will Be An Answer
All the world is green Within my midday dream Please, do not disturb me Let me sleep, let me be Let it be, let it be
I do not comprehend Your unnatural trends Of killing your neighbours After kicking in their sacred doors
Do not listen to me
Hear the breeze among the trees There, under nature’s ancient marquee She wisely decrees
Live in harmony like the bees Co-existence is free
A poem I wrote back in April 2019, just before I wss about to fly to the other side of the world, New York and Philadelphia.
Co-Existing
On a starry Autumn night
Lying under the cosmic sky
I see a universe beyond
The galaxy’s milky way
With unnumbered orbiting planets
Astronomer’s clearly hearing their sound
Radars that echo, there’s no shadow of doubt
Out there somewhere
In the vastness of space
Another similar earth, co-exists
Do those purple aliens
Wait and wonder
Look to the cosmos and ponder
When will those humanoids arrive
Invading their picturesque, violet atmosphere
Ravaging innocent foreign lands and lives
Bowing to the human war cry
Assimilate or die
“Melancholy Man” The Moody Blues
I’m a melancholy man, that’s what I am, All the world surrounds me, and my feet are on the ground. I’m a very lonely man, doing what I can, All the world astounds me and I think I understand That we’re going to keep growing, wait and see.When all the stars are falling down Into the sea and on the ground, And angry voices carry on the wind, A beam of light will fill your head And you’ll remember what’s been said By all the good men this world’s ever known. Another man is what you’ll see, Who looks like you and looks like me, And yet somehow he will not feel the same, His life caught up in misery, he doesn’t think like you and me, ‘Cause he can’t see what you and I can see
A poem from before my Tullawalla booklets, before I began my blog/website, before I had a computer, before I had a typewriter, and when I wrote my words with a 2HB pencil into a blue line exercise book. I do not have an exact date for the poem, but the piece was probably written during early 2003.
Hello dear readers and followers, I am announcing “Today” that “Tullawalla #31” is to be the final publication in my series of “Tullawalla” Booklets … For new readers that don’t know about these booklets, they are basically the reason why I write poetry. I produce these ‘home-printed’ 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 $1500.00, … 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 … …..Incredibly, there is now a total of “1347 poems”, Yep, over “Thirteen Hundred Poems” in my collection/series of “31” Tullawalla Booklets. After 6 YEARS of processing these booklets, my journey has finally come to an end, and here I am back at the ‘Front Gate’ to the Tullawalla, (House Number “31”), I have now completed the cycle
… As always, they are available for purchase, either as a hard copy ‘Booklet’, 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 to you about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is appropriately called, “Tullawalla, The Closing Chapter”… And here isthe link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com
Tullawalla #1 the first one: Tullawalla #15 the middle one: Tullawalla #31 the final one
There’s plenty of curiosity in these “odds and ends” pieces of poetry that I have compiled in my files, and this one I put together in January 2019. They were “verse comments” that I had made to some of my WordPress readers, about their posts at the time. I’ve not written one these for a while, and I’ve enough of my comments stored in my NoteBook file to fill “War And Peace!!” Thank you to all of my dear readers who comment on my writings, I am forever grateful, and you all continue to inspire me to write these short poetry pieces about your marvelous articles and poems.
Odds and Ends, The Ancient Tree
Time
Oh, time and time again
we wish for time to slow down
preserve our time in the sun and rain
and under stars, where lover’s caresses are crowned
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 