In this episode, I feature the memoirs of Ivor Steven, who writes of his loss of his wife to Multiple Sclerosis. His poems reveal raw and touching grief.

Ivor Steven formerly worked as an industrial chemist and a plumber. He is now retired. He has had numerous poems published in on-line magazines such as Vita Brevis, Spillwords, Drabble, Wolff Poetry Journal, Festival of Poetry, Slasher Monster Magazine, and Fae Corps Publishing. Recently he was appointed to the “Go Dog Go Café” magazine’s website team of Baristas. He is also an active member of the Geelong Writers Inc. and many of his poems are published in their anthologies. He started writing 19 years ago to help with his recovery from a stroke.  During this time, and for the 30 years of his wife’s (Carole’s) severe MS illness, Ivor was also his wife’s primary caregiver. 

 

He produces his own poetry chapbooks, each of which contains 40-45 poems. The series of chapbooks is called "Tullawalla", (+ Title). He has created nineteen of these chapbooks. He sells them through his website, local cafes, Geelong Writers groups, and the Geelong MS charity shop. All the money raised is donated to the MS Society.

 

Websites:  http://ivors20.wordpress.com and godoggocafe.com

Instagram:  ivors20

 

Link: https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

 

Music: “I Will Be There” from the royalty free selections on Podbean

 

Barbara Harris Leonhard is a writer, poet, and blogger. Her work appears in Phoebe, MD: Medicine and Poetry, Well Versed 2020, Spillwords; FREE VERSE REVOLUTION; Heretics, Lovers and Madmen; Go Dog Go Café; Silver Birch Press; Amethyst Review; Pillbaby.com; and Vita Brevis. She is the author of Discoveries in Academic Writing, which is based on her years of teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Missouri.

Blog: extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog

Podcast: meelosmom.podbean.com

 

To submit your poetic memoirs and concerns to this podcast, follow this link for the submission guidelines.

https://extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog/2020/07/31/call-for-submissions-to-poetry-the-memoir-of-the-soul/

 

© 2020 Barbara Harris Leonhard

Unless otherwise stated, all published works are the original works of the author and are copyrighted. Contents of this podcast may be re-used either for personal or commercial purposes, in part or whole only with permission and the author duly acknowledged with links to the podcast embedded.