by Ethel Mortenson Davis
I remember
how the winter days
had to be just right,
shining-cold
without a sign of wind,
to get the ponds like glass
and how we shined the glass
beneath the snow
to look at giant seas
caught under the ice
by some surprise glacier.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
by Thomas Davis
Outside winds howled with snow and bitter cold.
The phone rang: “Mrs. Davis?” asked a girl.
She sounded frightened. “Yes?” Her voice controlled,
too soft, the girl said, “Kevin…” Strong emotions swirled
into the howling of the storm, the cold, the snow.
“I’m scared,” she said at last. His mother caught her breath.
He’s hours away, she thought. It’s twenty-five below.
The roads are ice. This is a night for death.
“I’ll wait here with him, but you have to come.”
No cars were on the road that late at night.
She crawled across the miles, the constant drum
of howling winds accentuating fright
that made her fierce when, shaken, stunned,
she put her arms around her struggling son.
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son
Filed under Art, Photography
Ethel’s new book, White Ermine Across Her Shoulders is available now at Barnes and Noble and other online retailers:
White Ermine Across Her Shoulders has all the elements expected by
readers of Ethel Mortenson Davis’s poetry. The lines are highly imagistic
and intense. Descriptions of the earth’s beauty are intermingled with
comments, sometimes caustic, about the human experience. Often a
music rises that is both emotional and filled with language and insights
that remain in the memory long after the book has been put down. This,
Davis’s second volume, speaks eloquently about Kevin Michael Davis, her
son who died of cancer in 2010 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and touches on other
family relationships, making some of the poems more personal than those
she has published before. These poems are balanced with an understanding
of the universe and all of its creatures that encompasses both delight and
wisdom. What makes this collection appealing is an intellectual depth that
resonates, in the way of Emily Dickenson, with the imagistic and emotional
core that has always been a hallmark of Davis’s poetry.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry, Published Books
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The stealth of migrations
move across the land
under cover of darkness,
moving in hundreds
and then thousands.
You told me
about your car lights
shining in a canyon
one night–
“More elk than
one could imagine,”
moving to the southern places
where canyons lap over canyons,
lands whose vastness is greater
than the mind can comprehend,
unlike the northern deer
that migrate further north
to find giant spruce trees
whose branches touch
the ground to make
a snowless, warm canopy
for the wintering.
You said, “The axe blade
is sharpened, ready
to chop the bone
at the joints.”
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
Fall Wildflowers at Chaco Canyon, by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son
Walking Doors
by Alazanto, Kevin Davis
An old woman sits at edge of the road.
She waits for doors to walk through her,
but is greeted by a kiss to her cheek
from lush breezes
finding their sanctuary
in a sun who wants to be close.
A jackrabbit takes comfort in scurrying across her feet,
ears trailing a thousand miles–
and dangerous expectations
lunging forward a thousand years.
Some might say
needles of energy
warn of their love
as they patter onto the tops of black umbrellas.
Ripening seashells,
pernicious treetops, and
attentive arrowheads
all follow in slipstream
of that affectionate sun:
nova in a moment’s clarity.
The movement of an eternity
might be introduced to stillness:
Pocket mirrors would turn to sand,
covering the earth
and reflecting a newfound radiance of boiling hope.
Empty clay basins would soon over-wash
with psychical retinas,
as whispers emerge from the roots of long grasses.
In such confusing brilliance…
…the breezes are left to ponder,
“What if the sun no longer wanted to be so close?”
The sun assures,
“My affections are captured by your songs.
We both find sanctuary in our binding differences.
We must never doubt the depths of inspiration.”
Filed under Art, Photography, Poetry
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
On my walk
this morning
I reached down to pick
a sacred-colored blossom,
but hummingbird flew out!
I’ll leave this table
for you.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
This is for you Grandpa and Nana from Will! He made it during recess.
Filed under Art
fourwindowspress 