I Am Going To Die

Featured Image Above; ‘Waiting for Rainfall – Winton Wetlands, a painting by Geelong Artist/Poet, Jo Curtain, and the image was this weeks Geelong Writers Inc. Ekphrastic Photo Prompt, that subsequently inspired my ‘morbid’ poem below

I Am Going to Die




I am a fish out of water

Writhing and flopping

In this polluted puddle

Splosh!

Another toxic garbage bag

Squelches by

How did I ever survive

Here, in the wetland’s stagnant cesspools

Now, my rotting sun-burnt scales

Are covered in flies

Swarming!

The flies are sticking to my eyes

Maggots are clogging my gills

I cannot breathe

I hear Mother calling

“There is no need to cry

It’s your time to die”

Splosh!

The hovering vultures

Have begun swooping

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/

Lulu Books: https://www.lulu.com/shop/ivor-steven-and-derrick-knight/perceptions/hardcover/product-2pwqe4.html?q=Perceptions+by+Ivor+Steven&page=1&pageSize=4

OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com

Ivor Steven (c) December 2022

Standing On the Edge of Time

December is here and the final monthly colour challenge for 2022 at Weekly Prompts is – Pinkish. Please go over and visit their fabulous by clicking >> HERE

Featured Image Above; ‘Weird/Wonderful’, a painting by Geelong Artist Wendy Ratawa, which was this weeks Geelong Writers Inc. Ekphrastic Photo Prompt, that subsequently inspired my colourful poem.

Standing On the Edge of Time

Am I dreaming

Sprawled across Saturn’s rainbow rings

Wishing

I was there

On the edge of Jupiter’s

Multicoloured volcanoes

Observing the chromatic universe

Through my kaleidoscopic eyes

I am here

Standing on the edge of time

Above Tower Hill’s dormant crater

Overlooking a picturesque valley

Of blue lakes and

Multicoloured forests

Tullawalla is Available From;

Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/

Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com

Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’



Ivor Steven (c) December 2022

A Sad Winter Flame (A Tanka)

In May this year, I attended an Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop at the Foundry Studio & Gallery. Today’s Poem/Tanka is another piece I wrote from that day, and which I have not posted on my site before now.
Featured Image Above: My photograph of, Lee McGrath’s fascinating painting, “Winter Flame Tree” (Acrylic on canvas)



A Sad Winter Flame (a Tanka)

Dismayed, how to stop

Leaning against the hard rain

Unseasonal pain

Sodden, a sad winter flame

Downtrodden, a stained Ukraine

Ivor Steven (c) November 2022

The Closing Chapter

On Saturday morning I visited the the local “Pop Up Creatives Market”. The artwork at the “Wild Woodland Warrior” stall, run by Stephanie had many excellent paintings, and I bought a intriguing print “Library of Possibilities” … we had a nice chat, she likes poetry and we had a mutual poet friend in Jeremy Palmer … and she has an exhibition running at the momont at the Analogue Academy, the venue of my book launch next Saturday November 22nd … My poem below, “The Closing Chapter” was inspired her painting in Featured Image Above

The Closing Chapter




After the first page was turned

The saga progressed slowly

Unopened books were lost

Unused words were found

New novels had to be read

The search for more

Went on, and on

Adventure volumes were added

Library expansion soared upwards

Higher than fiction could fly

Fluttering beyond

The ladder’s last rung

Where the quest for more

Was out of reach

And the tale of uncharted possibility

Remained the unfinished story

Of the closing chapter

Ivor Steven (c) October 2022

A Banner Of Sunflowers

Continuing on from yesterday’s Ekphrastic poetry workshop, here is my poetic response to Shirley Drayton’s creative piece of textile artwork “Golden Sunflowers”

A Banner Of Sunflowers

look!

up there

above the War’s

darkest clouds

there is a blue banner

embroided with sunflowers

swaying

through a hole

in the eastern sky

bearing a message

of ‘Hello’

or is it ‘Goodbye’?

a sweeping reminder

from our Ancestors

“we feel your suffering and pain

from the merciless hard rain

blood filled rivers and cratered plains

smoke filled skylines and cracked windowpanes”

“however, we also know

beyond the broken horizon

the sunflower seeds of hope

will germinate again

and future seeds for peace

will regenerate a new campaign“

Ivor Steven (c) May 2022