Tag: Poetry/Australia

There’s A Crack In My China Soup Bowl

A poem I wrote in October 7th 2018

G’day to my readers here on WordPress, I’m not feeling well, and I’ve not been my usual self in being able to comment on all of your wonderful posts. I’m off to China on Wednesday morning, doing a compact 10 day sight-seeing tour, including the Great Wall of China. Hopefully I’ll be feeling betterer by then. Here’s my poem for today. I’d like to thank Kate of “Calmkate’, for the use of her words, “rank dank muddy waters”, which were basically the inspiration behind my gloomy poem, “There’s a Crack In My China Soup Bowl”, and also thanks to “Stella”, for giving me the idea for the Title of this poem.



There’s A Crack In My China Soup Bowl


My head’s full of black clouds

Drenched by the sky’s contaminated rain

My chest’s full of green slime

Drowned by the valley’s poisoned rivers


My eyes are full of yellow tears

Etched by the lake’s rank dank muddy waters

My heart’s full of grey blood

Permeated by the ocean’s mercury floor


There’s a stench in the air we breathe

How can we possibly leave

Walk up through those old rusty gates

Are we losing the battle, are we too late



Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Dreamless

A poem from a previous bad back month, in December 2019, seems to be appropriate
as I head into the second month of frustrating inactivity … Sorry, readers and followers for my continuing blogging absense …




Dreamless


Tap, tap, feel the back pain again

The drizzling pulse of dreamless rain

Falling on a hard pillow, wet and stained

The misty clouds of sleepless brain


Rivers of visions, once crystal clear

Now flooded fields of dreamless fears

Cascading mirrors, once reflective and sheer

Now broken pools of dreamless tears





Ivor Steven (c)  Dec 2019

Standing On Unstable Ground 

Featured Photo: by Derrick Knight, and a sincere thank you to Derrick for permitting me to use his fabulous image here in collaboration with my poem. This is now our “40th” collaborative article, and our joint book “Perceptions” is now in the hands of my editor/publisher (Judy, from Jaymah Press), and hopefully, the book will be in print before Christmas


Standing On Unstable Ground
 

 

Do not make me laugh 

The pain would cut me in half 

Instead

Pass me yesterday’s leftover chaff

Alas 

I cannot leave you an autograph 


I am a wounded grey donkey 

Standing on unstable ground 

Feeling disabled and lonely 

And my inner damage is yet to be found  






Ivor Steven © August 2022

A Good Guide, is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine

Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “A Good Guide”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below to read my poem, at Coffee House Writers.
>> https://coffeehousewriters.com/a-good-guide/





Ivor Steven (c) August 2022

Spring’s Renewal

Hi dear readers, I’ve found another poem that is in my files, but does not appear on my Website … now I am wondering what happened to my website entries between the 16th and 19th of October last year … it’s a mystery to me??




Spring’s Renewal


Spring has sprung again

With a burst of sunshine

Between old storm clouds and new rain

While life’s decor is being redesigned


Winter’s open wounds

Are washed clean

Last year’s fragile blooms

Are due back on the scene






Ivor Steven (c) August 2022

The World Could Be Falling Down

Here is a poem that is in my files, but does not appear on my Website, maybe I deleted the post accidentally …


The World Could Be Falling Down




I was walking in yesterday’s deluge

up a steep holy hillside

talking to my fading shadow

that was stalking deep puddles

while I was balking today’s thunderbolts




my knees were knocking in fright

and my hips were rocking like Noah’s Ark

while shovelling leftover manure in the dark




nature’s mocking the world full of old lonely hearts

and blocking the future’s already drowning restart






Ivor Steven (c) August 2022

Congregating Every Day

Hello dear readers and followers, this poem today is the first piece I have written for 3 weeks, after being unable to attempt any computer work because of my debilitating back pain. I’m afraid my back is still very sore, and this article has been put together via short sittings at my desk over the last 3 days. I think Derrick’s photos captured my imagination and stirred my tired mind to write something creative.

All Photographs, by Derrick Knight, and thank you once again for allowing me to reproduce your fabulous images here on my poetry site …
>> https://derrickjknight.com/2022/08/18/no-one-told-the-ponies/

And this is now our 39th poem/photograph collaboration, and a “Glossy Coffee-table” type book “Perceptions” is on the way, hopefully, available before Christmas.

No-one told the ponies



Congregating Every Day




There they patiently stand

Congregating every day

Outside the community shop

And the village letterbox


Most of them are posting

Food parcels to their equine relatives

Hungry and abandoned in the Ukraine


Others wait forlornly

For any news of encouragement

About the health and whereabouts

From their frightened families

Inside war-torn Ukraine


There they patiently stand

Congregating every day






Ivor Steven ©  August 2022

Echoes, Tullawalla, page 147

I can hear the echoes from Tullawalla sounding closer …

Echoes


My night’s sleep was calm and sound

Despite the deafening noise of echo’s lost a found

I heard the midnight owl singing

Replaying tunes, of last year’s bells ringing


My blankets had not been disturbed

As if my shadow had slept unperturbed

And my mind had been emptied of yesterday’s wind burns

Then my morning song whispered the words, “sunshine returns”






Ivor Steven (c) August 2022

Ukraine is in Pain (a Limerick)

Not really a humourous Limerick, this one is quite melancholy, reflecting my back pain over these last few weeks …


Ukraine is in Pain (a Limerick)




There was an old poet in pain

Who had been struck down by hard rain

He felt thorns in his back

Like a missile attack

Misguided shrapnel from Ukraine






Ivor Steven (c) August 2022