On Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday challenge is: FOR THE BIRDS. Please go over and visit their fabulous site by clicking >> HERE. The below Haiku, is my response to the prompt.
Silently She Cries
In the sky somewhere
There’s the old peace dove crying
In silence, she’ll die
Ivor Steven (c) June 2020.
Out of the blue ocean, into the black sea
We still appear wet behind our ears
And still burning bridges made out of ancient trees
Repeating the same old questions, while wearing our masks of tears
What about looking at nature’s dragonflies and bees?
How do they live in harmony without the fears?
We are the carriers of this corrupt disease
Ignoring our racist problems for too many years
Ivor Steven (c) June 2020
Below, the lyrics to “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier, please read and sing along…..
“Nina Cried Power”
(feat. Mavis Staples)
It’s not the song, it is the singing
It’s the heaven of a human spirit ringing
It is the bringing of the line
It is the bearing of the rhyme
It’s not the waking, it’s the rising
[Hozier & Mavis Staples:]
And I could cry power (Power), power (Power)
Power, Lord
Nina cried power
Billie cried power
Mavis cried power
And I could cry (Power) power, (Power) power
Hey, power
Curtis cried power
Patti cried power
Nina cried power
[Hozier:]
It’s not the wall, but what’s behind it
Oh, the fear of fellow man, it’s mere assignment
And everything that we’re denied
By keeping the divide
It’s not the waking, it’s the rising
[Hozier & Mavis Staples:]
And I could cry power (Power), power (Power)
Oh, power
Nina cried power
Lennon cried power
James Brown cried power
And I could cry (Power) power, (Power) power
Hey, power
B.B. cried power
Joni cried power
Nina cried power
[Mavis Staples:]
And I could cry power
Power has been cried by those stronger than me
Straight into the face that tells you
To rattle your chains if you love being free
[Hozier & Mavis Staples:]
But I could cry power (Power)
‘Cause power is my love when my love reaches to me
James Brown cried power
Seeger cried power
Marvin cried power
Yeah ah, power
James cried power
Lennon cried power
Patti cried power
Billie, power
Dylan, power
Woody, power
Nina cried power
“The language of friendship is not words but meanings” … Henry David Thoreau
I, Can Breathe
I don’t own much
I don’t owe much
I share what I have
I have hope and love……
Oh, we, the drowned
We, the broken
We, the leftover pieces
We, hoping for peace
I see their choices
I hear their voices
I am defiant
I, cannot be a tyrant
I, cannot be violent
I, cannot be silent
Ivor Steven (c) June 2020
My stomachs rumbling
Upset and tumbling
I’ve been swallowing lumps of dark chocolate
And guzzling black coffee from stained goblets
The grey smokey clouds of yesterday
Have stuck around like muddy brown clay
Has this captain midnight moved into stay?
Will charcoal pencils write about peace today?
Ivor Steven (c) June 2020
.
My smokey eyes have been faltering
Sad necessary tears have me wavering
Looking down the knife-edges
Balancing on red cliff-edges
.
How will the fog of darkness be lifted?
From angry souls that have drifted
Mirror, mirror, who’s the saddest
Mirror, mirror, where is forgiveness
.
The heart-breakers came around
Killing a black-rose on the ground
Deep down we all feel hollow
And none can see the peace-smoke halo
.
.
Ivor Steven (c) June 2020
Is there a song?
Between who is sad, and who is wrong
Beyond this prolonged swan song
How long, is too long?
Along these throngs of torch songs
Headstrong, and head-on
We know their theme song
We are all in the wrong
Oh. We, are the wrong
Listen to the birdsong
Listen to her lifelong song
Listen to nature humming along
Ivor Steven (c) May 2020.
“We, The Drowned”, Lyrics by Lisa Hannigan
We know not the fire in which we burn
But we sing and we sing
And the flames grow higher.
We read not the pages which we turn
But we sing, and we sing, and we sing, and we sing
We, the wrong,
We the sewn up and long gone,
Were before and all along
Like this
We, the drowned
The lost and found out,
We are all finished again.
I wonder what mum and grandma are thinking
Mum was born after the First World War
A child of the roaring twenties
Then she became a poor teenager, of the great depression
And a young nurse, during the horror’s of a second World War
A time when everyone’s supplies were rationed
Everyone helped each other, when things run out
Everyone knew a son, that been killed in the war
Everyone gave you a soft shoulder to lean on
Everyone shared each others pain
Our parents and grandparents survived
And taught us compassion, and the value of every single life
Ivor Steven (c) March 2020
I’m living inside my bubble of air and sea
But my shadow is drifting away from me
A distant silhouette beyond my arms reach
Now I’m an isolated sand-grain off yesterday’s beach
I’m walking alone and free in today’s daydream
Thinking of life, crossing-over to be with my honey and cream*
This commonwealth of man has isolated the birds and bees
Now I’m hoping to hug this dark forest’s future trees
honey and cream* >> https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/cream-and-honey-2/
Ivor Steven (c) March 2020
I hear my peace chimes
Ringing on the morning breeze
Nature’s harmony
Ivor Steven (c) March 2020
Hello dear readers, this is my follow-up poem, on the back of my pictorial article about our Geelong’s “Pako Festa” on Saturday >>https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/the-communities-leap-of-faith-pako-festa-geelong/ My poem here was inspire by this glorious multicultural event, which was both awe-inspiring and at times emotionally teary for me….. Hopefully my words explain my thoughts as the parade passed by me….. And as usual I’ve attached a song, but this is not any song….. it’s a piece I’ve had on my playlist for a while….. a very emotional song by ‘Natalie Merchant’, … please listen if you have time, and you’ll understand how my poem is strongly connected to her song ‘Motherland’…… By coincidence, I remembered “Natalie Merchant’s” song when I began searching YouTube for a suitable piece of music to go with my poem……and for your further enjoyment, I’ve also attached her superb lyrics below…….
One Motherland
I’m standing here watching
a parade of nations
passing in front of me
people from far away lands
walking hand in hand
in harmony
one big family
beyond their first moorings
recalling their ocean crossings
I’m standing here wondering
what drove them here
to leave their homeland
cross a line in the sand
and live in this distant world
on an ancient island
to live as one
under the same sun
cradled by one Motherland
I’m standing here crying
thinking about pointless wars
knowing children are dying
there’s too much hatred
life is so sacred
we are all related
living under One hand
all on one Motherland
we are merely a mite of dust
searching for love and trust
cradled by one Motherland
Motherland, lyrics by Natalie Merchant
Where in hell can you go
Far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete
That keeps crawling its way
About 1,000 miles a day?
Take one last look behind
Commit this to memory and mind
Don’t miss this wasteland, this terrible place
When you leave
Keep your heart off your sleeve
Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don’t go, don’t you go
O, my five & dime queen
Tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice
The bottomless, the cavernous greed
Is that what you see?
Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don’t go
It’s your happiness I want most of all
And for that I’d do anything at all, o mercy me!
If you want the best of it or the most of all
If there’s anything I can do at all
Now come on shot gun bride
What makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free,
What’s that like to be?
Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don’t go, don’t you go
Ivor Steven (c) March 2020
