a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Category Archives: Ethel Mortenson Davis
The Woman and the Whale
By Ethel Mortenson Davis from her new book, The Woman and the Whale
The day was a day of celebration.
A small Right Whale stood vertical,
head out of the water,
straight up in the air,
his dorsal fins reaching like arms
toward the sky.
A woman diver
from a South Pacific Island
said the whale tried to tuck her
under his dorsal fin
when she interacted with him.
At first, she struggled to get away—
until she saw the shark
circling her, trying to get at her.
The whale kept his body between
the diver and the shark.
Then the whale grew agitated,
slapped his tail at the shark,
before finally running it off.
Today, the whale came back with his family,
many heads sticking straight up in the air.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry, Published Books
Grandmother
a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis
Christmas
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
We are in need of the Archangel to come down
and tell us we have lost paradise,
to come down and tell us we have lost the wonderment
of the child as he looks into the face of the black and white warbler,
or the wonderment of multi-colored lichen
on the facade of giant boulders.
We are in need of an Archangel to tell us we have lost heaven,
and there will be no Messiah to save us from ourselves.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
Stellar’s Jay
by Ethel Mortenson Davis from her book, I Sleep Between the Moons of New Mexico
A prince stepped
out on our land
this morning
from some far away place.
He wore a spectacular black headdress
and was dressed
all in blue
with geometric checkers
across his shoulders.
I slipped an extra banquet
out to him
so he would stay
a bit longer.
But he wiggled his white eyebrows,
a fine prince of a fellow,
then hurried off
to catch a wind.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
Dying and the Mystery of Absence
When Ethel Mortenson Davis and I created this site while we lived in New Mexico, we did so partially to make sure that we had a creative place to not only showcase some of the poetry and art we have both produced throughout our lifetimes but to also honor our son, Kevin Michael Davis. Kevin had died in Poughkeepsie New York where he was a web designer for Vassar College after a short struggled against aggressive cancer. While we put this blog together, we were both still in the throes of grieving and trying to deal with Kevin’s loss.
Now, Bennison Books, a publisher in Great Britain, has come out with a new anthology, Leaving, an anthology of poetry about dying, grief, and the mystery of absence. The anthology features poems by both Ethel and I as well as some of the finest poets writing anywhere, Cynthia Jobin, John Looker, and A. Carder. As the forward to this magnificent volume says,
Both the grueling reality of dying and its indefinable mystery are revealed in this diverse collection. Grief is tranformative; we are profoundly changed by it. It is also prismatic, imposing new insights, a wider breadth of vision.
The new anthology is available at https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-anthology-poetry-mystery-absence/dp/1999740831/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S3YX5MBBHIVN&keywords=Leaving+Bennison+Books&qid=1699623562&s=books&sprefix=leaving+bennison+books%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-1
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry, Thomas Davis
Running Free
a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis
To the Innocent
For Troy Davis
I hope you are in a place where there is justice, where there is love unconditionally, the end, where young men no longer are lynched by ropes, or the machinations of killers, where there is light and not the suffocating, ethered mud, a place where you will rise above humanness. I hope you are in a place called Justice, a place that will never be named Georgia.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
The Fire
a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis
Debris Field
a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Filed under Art, Art by Ethel Mortenson Davis, Ethel Mortenson Davis
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