by Ethel Mortenson Davis
They tried to tell us
you didn’t have souls—
but I knew better.
Your eyes showed it.
Your sense of humor
spoke it.
The way you took care
of your young
screamed it.
They tried to tell us
you didn’t have souls,
but I knew better.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Winter, with bellowing cheeks,
blew and spat ice and snow
across the fields and streams,
across the woods and sides of lakes,
leaving a jagged and spiked print—
Like the Australian Aborigine
who puffed out his cheeks
and spat minerals
across his hand
in a cave on a wall,
leaving his print for humanity.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
Carolyn Kane, the author of an award winning novel, Taking Jenny Home, a Professor Emeritus of English at Culvert-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, just reviewed Ethel’s book, Under the Tail of the Milky Way Galaxy, for the Peninsula Pulse. The review can be read here:
https://doorcountypulse.com/review-under-the-tail-of-the-milky-way-galaxy-by-ethel-mortenson-davis.
In the review Kane says that “Davis’ poems might be described as extended haiku because their images are sharp and spare, and because they contain the element of contrast that a reader should expect in a well-crafted haiku.” It is a wonderful review.
Filed under Essays, Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
I will call you dignity.
You are my mother.
You elevate our character.
And I will call you generosity;
you are my father.
You give us a largeness
that frees us from small meanness.
As for you, humanity,
I will call you lost.
Remember when you said,
“What good is poetry?”
“I cannot shape it into a vessel
and drink water out of it.”
“I cannot form it into a purse
and hold my money in it.”
Now, my lost one,
you have fallen into a hole.
You are on your hands and knees,
calling in the darkness
for your mother and father,
calling for poetry to be written.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
a sonnet by Thomas Davis
What responsibility do poets
assume once they have started writing verse?
Walking through the universe inchoate
has been rejected when their words immerse
them in the streams of dreams, emotions, thoughts
taking shape upon an empty page
and reaching out to other spirits caught
in living’s fears, hopes, love, joys, dread, and rage.
Should poets only sing of love and light?
Images that burn the retina like a flash
of lightning streaking through a sky’s black night?
Or is there reason for their lifetime’s cache
of words to speak of justice, truth, destruction,
the possibility of life’s extinction?
Filed under poems, Poetry, Thomas Davis
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
“What are you doing Edna?”
“I’m going to plant seeds in
the dark soil behind the cattails.”
“When you get into that corner
where my cameras can’t see you,
Edna, you raise questions.”
“Questions, Charlie?”
“Plant your seeds in the designated
areas, Edna. In the containers provided.”
“I like the soil behind the cattails, Charlie.”
“My name is Robo, Edna.”
“Okay, Charlie, Robo.”
“What are you planting, Edna?”
“Corn, squash, and beans: like the original Americans,
the first Americans.”
“But I can’t see you, Edna.
You must stay inside
in the afternoon, in case you fall.”
“Oh, is that the reason?”
“You must pay attention to the authorities, Edna,
so that all goes well for you.”
“If I don’t, Charlie, and I taste a bit of freedom,
then what?”
“You ask me questions instead of answering mine, Edna.”
“I hope so Charlie.”
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
After the storm,
on our morning walk,
deer tracks ran
along the water’s edge
in the heavy snow.
These were running tracks,
with great distance
between each footprint,
its force making
a deep imprint in the snow.
Yesterday was the last day
of hunting season.
A heavy snow and ice storm
ran all day,
keeping hunters at bay.
Because hunters cannot
hunt along the water’s edge,
these deer found refuge
along the lake’s shore,
among the cedar groves—
respite for another year.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
