Red Wolf Journal, A Change of World Spring 2022 Edition

The ediditor of Red Wolf Journal, Irene Toh, is pleased to announce the release of the Spring 2022 Issue.

The poets with work in the A Change of World edition are:

Dmitry Blizniuk
Paul Brooke
Jeff Burt
Joe Cottonwood
CS Crowe
Mary Anna Scenga Kruch
Ron. Lavalette
Joan Mazza
Karla Linn Merrifield
Peter Mladinic
Misky
Larry Oakner
Frederick Pollack
Emalisa Rose
Timothy Resau
Rikki Santer
Emil Sinclair
Ivor Steven
Debi Swim

You may download a copy of the PDF release here.

A Change of World Spring 2022 Issue 20

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You’re invited to submit to our new issue, also titled A Change of World, Fall 2022 Edition. Read our submission guidelines here. Happy writing!

Irene Toh
Editor
Spring 2022 Edition
_____________________________________________________________________________________

A sincere thank you to the editor Irene, for considering two my of poems for her superb anthology “A Change Of World”

Lights Above Bridges

Bridges span our invisible years

And carry forgotten fallen tears

Crossing over old hidden fears

Bridges are burnt over time

Years turn to ashes in an instant

And time is our only constant 

Beyond the longest bridges

Under the ocean’s deepest blue

And above nature’s darkest green

Love’s evolving hues renew

And Aurora lights are on debut

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

Promote Yourself Mondays, February 28, 2022

Dear readers and followers, here’s a great opportunity for your writings to be read by other writers, and also to find and meet other writers. You are very welcome to participate, come along and visit our writer friendly site…..by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article >>
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Go Dog Go Café

Welcome toPromote Yourself Monday. All Go Dog Go Cafe community members are invited to postonelink to one specific piece of their writing (600 words or less please!) they have published on their blog, Facebook page, or Instagram feed into the comments section below.

If you post a link, be sure to read some of the other great writing people have linked to.

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Bloody Tears, Bloody History

Can you hear the ghosts of Sunday?

“Sunday, Bloody Sunday”

From your distant country’s

On the edge of peace and tranquility

Within your rural trees of serenity

Beyond invisible borders of rivalry

Between oblivious inequality

From the old schoolyard bully

Overseeing an avoidable atrocity

Again another “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”

How can they forget history so quickly?

“Hell Broke Luce”, by Tom Waits

Featured Image: From Genius Lyrics. Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

“Hell Broke Luce”, by Tom Waits

I had a good home but I left
I had a good home but I left, right, left
That big fucking bomb made me deaf, deaf
A Humvee mechanic put his Kevlar on wrong
I guarantee you’ll meet up with a suicide bomb
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

Big fucking ditches in the middle of the road
You pay a hundred dollars just for fillin’ in the hole
Listen to the general every goddamn word
How many ways can you polish up a turd
Left, right, left, left, right
Left, right
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

How is it that the only ones responsible for making this mess
Got their sorry asses stapled to a goddamn desk
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Left, right, left

What did you do before the war?
I was a chef, I was a chef
What was your name?
It was Geoff, Geoff
I lost my buddy and I wept, wept
I come down from the meth
So I slept, slept
I had a good home but I left, left
Pantsed at the wind for a joke
I pranced right in with the dope
Glanced at her shin she said nope
Left, right, left

Nimrod Bodfish have you any wool
Get me another body bag the body bag’s full
My face was scorched, scorched
I miss my home I miss my porch, porch
Left, right, left

Can I go home in March? March
My stanch was a chin full of soap
That rancid dinner with the pope
Left, right, left

Kelly Presutto got his thumbs blown off
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough
Sergio’s developing a real bad cough
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce
Hell broke luce

Boom went his head away
And boom went Valerie
What the hell was it that the president said?
Give him a beautiful parade instead
Left, right, left

When I was over here I never got to vote
I left my arm in my coat
My mom she died and never wrote
We sat by the fire and ate a goat
Just before he died he had a toke
Now I’m home and I’m blind
And I’m broke
What is next


Lyrics by Tom

Ivor Steven …

Tullawalla #27, Is There More?

Hello dear readers and followers … I’m happy to announce that I have managed to produce my “Twenty Seventh Tullawalla” … 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 “1156 poems”, Yep over “A Thousand Poems” in my collection/series of “27” Tullawalla Booklets. After 2 months, this booklet is finally completed, and ready for sale now !! 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 about arrangements from there…. Oh, the booklet is called “Tullawalla, Is There More?”… And here is the link to my website >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com

Is There More?

Beyond my front door

Will there be more?

When the lights go out

I quietly sit and stare

To see what is out there

Is there more?

Than starlit stairs

And when will I?

Begin the climb

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

The Final Sunset

I have a few thank you’s to accompay the writing of my piece “The Final Sunset”.

Firstly my opening stanza was written as a response to Susi’s inspiring post today, thank you Susi. https://iwriteher.com/2022/02/24/peace-please/ Thank you to David Redpath, for reminding me of Bob Dylan’s poignant protest song, “Masters Of War” , which I have attached below. https://highwaybloggery.com/2022/02/24/masters-of-war/ , and thank you to Derrick Knight for allowing me to use his stunning “Sunset” photo as my featured photo here on my site, https://derrickjknight.com/2022/02/24/the-assistant-photographer-saves-the-day/

The Final Sunset 
 
 
Wrong versus right 
War versus peace 
Greed versus commonsense 
Destruction versus harmony 
Killing versus living 
 
War is not the people’s choice 
 
Is this to be our final sunset 
Will she justifiably refuse  
To open her golden eye 
Upon another shattering dawn  
Of our manufactured doom

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

Love is Not Declined

 

My internal battle is never ending  

Neither won nor lost 

My opponent is my ghost 

I forgive with the morning dew 

And my regrets are few 

There is two breaths in every moment  

The first one kisses our heart 

The second breath caresses our soul


 

True love is hard to find  

And impossible to define 

When found, be exceedingly kind 

Love can spellbind your mind 

But blindly, love is not declined 

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

Any Afternoon

Mid afternoon

Here in my empty room

Between unruffled sheets

With the curtains drawn

I remember our matinee’s

Of laughter and soft sighs

You would tickle my feet

As I caressed your naked thighs

Tomorrow afternoon

There in my lonely room

Between unruffled sheets

The curtain falls at my feet

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

Why Wait? The Boat is Sinking Anyway. Is up at Coffee House Writers Magazine.

Hello dear readers and followers, as you may know, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Why Wait? The Boat Is Sinking Anyhow”, is in this weeks edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below and visit my poem, at Coffee House Writers >>
https://coffeehousewriters.com/the-boat-is-sinking/



Why Wait? The Boat Is Sinking Anyway

My efforts to solve failures go amiss
Somehow the goals keep moving in the mist
I am misunderstanding what I need to know
I only understand what I already know
I am misunderstanding why they only throw me the bones
But I understand the hurt of being hit by sharp stones

There is a loud cheer from the crowd
But who is listening to my muffled words now
The silence is deafening
Waiting times are beckoning
My heart is sinking with every beat
And my messages are replete

Telling myself, the world will always be a misty haze
And I smile to myself with teary eyes
They are welcome emotions now-days
Emptying my of soul of sunken blase ways

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022

Ex Comes Before Why

Do you get caught staring? 

At an unknown person 

Who returns your stare 

With an angry glare 

Sorry! 

I was daydreaming 

Inside an empty vortex 

You were not in there 

Nor next


 

My vacant gaze 

Was mindlessly waiting 

For my sparkling mirage 

To turn into Cinderella’s carriage 

Or am I? 

The next ex 

Before the why 

Ivor Steven (c) February 2022