I am ecstatic that my poem “Lines To Nowhere”, has been accepted and published in Spillwords Magazine today, and I am very grateful to the editor Dagmara for selecting my piece … Please go over and visit my poem at Spillwords and if you wish, leave a 💗 for my article, by clicking on this link >>
Ivor Steven (c) June 2nd 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, I am now back writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine, after a 6 weak self-enforced break due to my personally hectic schedule during April and May. Luckily, I had my article ready for publication before I contracted ‘Covid’, and my poem “Behind Your Mirror”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below and visit my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/behind-your-mirror/
Behind Your Mirror
At the local veil sales
You will hear me ask
“Are you wearing a mask”
You, lurking in the back pews
Beyond your mirror’s view
Waiting to be rescued
When you return home
If you roll away your mirror of stone
You will no longer be alone
Ivor Steven (c) May 2023
Hi dear readers, I’m home with the ‘Covid’ virus, so I have been searching my files for some appropriate poems, and found this post from June 2020
“A wonderful surprise for me this morning and a lovely pick-me-up, to find that my poem “The Sun Arose Again”, had been published at ‘Red Wolf Journal’, and thank you to the editor, Irene, for her kind consideration of my submission…”
The Sun Arose Again
by Ivor Steven
There must be a number of silent masks around
Yesterday an old mask flew away at the speed of sound
From behind, the real pieces of what we perceive
Are leftover bones, bleached by sky and sea
Where the worn pebbles lingering in the hand
Fall gently upon lines drawn in the sand
And these new beginnings could be a heavenly gift
As white doves soar above the mourning cliffs
Perhaps the next awakening will be a peaceful one
Full of friendly compassion and wisdom
I’m lucky today, the sun arose again
To light up the hallway, despite the rain
I’ll be the first one to walk out the door
And the only one left here, to see her valour
Ivor Steven (c) May 2023
A big thank you to the Editor: Barbara Leonhard, for accepting and publishing my poem “Anything is Everything” at MasticadoresUsa.
… … … …
To view my entire poem at MasticadoresUsa, please click on this link >> https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/05/19/anything-is-everything-by-ivor-steven/
Featured Image: by Jaesub Kim on Pixabay
Ivor Steven (c) May 2023
Forty-seven poets and writers with astute observations about living, emotions, and our world were featured online in The Short of It publication in 2022. The best of their thoughts fill the pages of this compilation. They will leave you with rich impressions, some providing mysteries to ponder but also many which speak deep truths. Each piece by the poets and writers presented in this collection shows us, with depth and succinctness, what was on their minds. Every one of their poems, as the title of this book suggests, brings to the surface their “reflections and revelations.”
A big thank you to Susi Bocks for editing and producing this outstanding Anthology, and I am proud to have been selected as one of many in a talented list of writers.
“The paperback version is available on Amazon.com NOW!! To get your copy, please CLICK THIS LINK! “
Here are my “Short” poetic entries in Anthology:
Facades
Wearing your best vest
Is not necessarily a truthful test
A facade for a restless chest
Again
Summer’s golden plains
And stormy rains
Erase winter stains
After Twilight
Starry, starry nights
Shine on, shine on bright
Please stay, please stay within sight
Earthquake
I feel the earth quake
Fracturing tears off my soul
Tremors from my heart
Hail
Hailstones, hard as nails
Falling frozen razor blades
Storm’s icy sharp balls
Ivor Steven (c) April 2023
Hello dear readers and followers … Party Time is here, with the announcement Date for the Launch of my second Book “Perceptions” … A Collaboration of Derrick Knight’s Photos and my associated Ekphrastic Poems …
And here ‘again’ is Ingrid Wilson’s fabulous Book Review of “Perceptions” Please visit her wonderful site >> https://experimentsinfiction.com/
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, ‘There Will Be An Answer’)
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 Philadelphia, USA).
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 Wilson
Editor & Publisher, Experiment in Fiction (England)
“As a poet, sometimes we confuse ourselves, Trying to create ashes, instead of fire ” — Leonard Cohen
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) March 2023
Hello dear readers and followers, I now write for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Cracks and Holes”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. … please click on the link below and visit my poem, at Coffee House Writers. >> https://coffeehousewriters.com/cracks-and-holes/
Cracks and Holes
There are cracks in the internet
Is there a hole in the alphabet?
There are cracks in the ground
Is there a hole in the Pound?
There are cracks in my skin
Is there a hole in the garbage bin?
There are cracks in the skyline
Is there a hole in my shrine?
There is a crack in my Mind
Is the world a hole in decline?
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) March 2023
This evening I celebrated “World Poetry Day” at a special event sponsored by Deakin University and Geelong Regional Library, which was held in the magnificent Geelong Library Building, featuring recitals from six exceptional poets, John Bartlett, Wendy Fleming, Rosemary Blake, Maria Takolander, Rachel Baxter, and Anne Elvey.
For World Poetry Day I am presenting a poem from my new book Perceptions – “A Soul’s Weary Retreat”, which I scanned directly from the book.
Video Below: Leonard Cohen reciting “A Thousand Kisses Deep”
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) March 2023
“In Need of a Wise Owl” is a poem from my book “Perceptions”, and I have scanned “page 4” directly out of my copy and reproduced it here, to give everyone an idea of how each page appears to the reader. The wonderful photos are by Derrick Knight (Southern England), and all have one of my Ekphrastic poems below the associated image. The fantastic cover artwork is by my amazingly talented niece Kerri (Bensalem, USA)
“Déjà Vu”. Lyrics by, Crosby Stills Nash & Young
One, two, three, four
If I had ever been here before
I would probably know just what to do, don’t you?
If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel
I would probably know just how to deal with all of you
And I feel like I’ve been here before
Feel like I’ve been here before
And you know it makes me wonder
What’s going on under the ground, hmm
Do you know? Don’t you wonder
What’s going on down under you?
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
We have all been here before, we have all been here before
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Perceptions-Ivor-Steven/dp/1387487302/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RD27PWFI9JPS&keywords=perceptions+by+ivor+steven&qid=1676894211&s=books&sprefix=Perceptions%2Cstripbooks%2C1174&sr=1-1
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) March 2023
Over on Weekly Prompts, the Wednesday Challenge is the word: ENOUGH. Please visit their fabulous site by clicking on >> Here …
Below, the Epigram “Dancing in the Rain” that I wrote in September 2022, has been selected for publication in the Australian Magazine “Positive Words”, thank you to the editor Sandra for considering my piece >>https://positivewordsmagazine.wordpress.com/ …
The poem is my first ever “Epigram” and to be published in this wonderful magazine is more than ENOUGH reward for my debut Epigram …
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:
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) February 2023
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 