Milk-Honey

by Thomas Davis

My love’s breasts are full of milk honey,
And the seed of life lies heavily within her.
I praise the quietness of the gentle night
When my voice can love play with her voice,
And the round, straight features of her face are clear.

It is then that the surging waves of the sea
Are drowned in the music of their own singing,
And the cool green depths of an underwater world
Drift through the star milk moods of silence
Running intermittently through the clatter of our tongues.

It is then that my love becomes more beautiful
Than the bazaar of women who display charms
So cunningly to an awaiting, breathless world.
My love’s breasts are full of milk honey,
And the seed of life lies heavily within her.

Note: This was written when Ethel and I were expecting our first child, a daughter, a long time ago.

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Dried Grasses in the Early Spring

a photograph by Sonja Bingen, our daughter

Dried Grasses

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Smoke of Cedars

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

We need
to wash our faces
in the cedar smoke,
for the spring
is in drought.

We need to do
all that is right,
all that any god
would surely admire.

Look!
There is the green grosbeak.

He has returned
to nest even though
our world is dying.

I will lay water
out for him,
and he, in turn,
will help us forget
our hair is white.

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Power

by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son

Power

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48. Upon the Brink of Destruction

a passage from The Dragon Epic by Thomas Davis

1

As Sshruunak and his followers began
To flee the village, Mmirrimann sent out
A panicked plea to stop. Ssruaanne had swerved
To miss the ground near where Ruanne was chanting
Her power song and started following
The beaten dragon horde toward the chaos
That swirled its void around the village walls.

“Join with the witches’ singing!” Mmirrimann
Demanded. “Find a balance for the world!”

The realms of death swept over cottages
And sang their chaos deep in sentient minds.
Ssruaanne wheeled in the sky and linked her mind
Into the song Ruanne was singing, coldness
Numbed deep beneath her scales into her hearts.
She felt the power flowing from the singing Wei
Who’s linked into the words Ruanne was chanting.
She felt the search that Wei was making, lost
Inside the storm of nothingness, the flotsam
Of spirits, once alive, a ghostly dance
That swirled into the living universe
And started disassembling the order
That made time’s arrow flow, its winging gluing
Together possibilities of sentient life.

As Mmirrimann’s strong spirit joined the song
And other dragons found the stream of beauty
Entwined into the magic Ruanne made,
The cording of the music found the fear
In human, dragon hearts and grew until
The silent sound formed bubbles that surrounded
The village and the forest and the lives
That gave the earth its meaning laced in time.
Reality, assaulted by the winds
Of death, rose out of humans, dragons, trees,
And shimmered as another war erupted,
The chaos trembling over all of life
As life fought back with sentient hearts and song.

Below the floors where children hid from dragons,
Their mothers held their small ones close and tried
To ward away the chilling cold with love.
Inside the caves where guardians hovered over
The clutches of the dragon eggs, stunned dragons
Reached out to find the song Ruanne had started
And tried to use the warmth inside the song
To keep the eggs from crumbling to mist
So fierce it penetrated stone-deep walls
Protecting caves and cliffs and dragon life.

2

Ruarther tried to move his legs toward
The cottage wall he’d almost reached when mist
Descended over him and took away
Reality from eyes and touch and smell.
He felt the Spirit Bear, still whole, beside
Him, looking for a way into his physicality,
But, like he’d done inside the weirding wood,
He drove into himself until he felt
The song Ruanne was in his life and started
The process of building who he was from scratch,
His burning core alive inside the deadness.

He could not feel his movement through the mist,
But still he struggled, pushing out from deep
Inside himself into the world he knew existed.
Then, like a hint of morning light before
Light filtered dusk into a cloud cloaked sky,
He thought he heard Ruanne, her sweet, strong voice,
Outside his head, but still inside his mind.
He reached for her and fell into abyss
As dragon minds and human minds were linked
And drummed as loud as any symphony
Had ever been at any human time.
The power of the mind-song slammed his heart.
He even felt the song sung by the stones
That only moved inside eternal time.

He moved inside the sound until he found
The chanting of Ruanne’s sweet voice and joined
His voice to hers and wove a melody
Of two inside the strands of music weaving
Defense against the terror of the void.

There needs to be some certainty in life,
He thought. Inside the certainty is love.

To listen to this passage, click on .

Note: This is the forty eighth passage of a long narrative poem, which has grown into The Dragon Epic. Originally inspired by John Keats’ long narrative poem, Lamia, it tells a story set in ancient times when dragons and humans were at peace. Click on the numbers below to reach other sections, or go to the Categories box to the right under The Dragon Epic. Click on Dragonflies, Dragons and Her Mother’s Death to go to the beginning and read forward. Go to Living Inside Chaos to read the passage before this one.

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Near the Ocean

a photograph by Alazanto, Kevin Davis, our son

Near the Ocean

Note: This is a photo that takes some looking at before you actually see what’s there.

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The Answer

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

“I could never
live in a place
where it doesn’t rain
and isn’t green.”

“It’s the same earth
that’s wrapped around
the great lakes,
just farther west
and south.”

“What do you see in it?”

“I see clouds hugging
the tall mountains and not
letting go.

I see the white rose
and purple blossom
existing in the dry land
because they are sacred.

I see the people
come outside and celebrate
with dance
in the eternal circle
when the rains finally
do come.”

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Spring!

a photograph by Ethel Mortenson Davis

Spring!

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The Well

a children’s poem by Thomas Davis

“The well has gone dry for the winter!
Oh my! Oh my! What shall we do?
The well has gone dry for the winter!
Oh my! Oh my! What shall we do?”

“Go down to the creek with a bucket
And clear the crusted ice away.
Dip the bucket into the water
And carry the water away.”

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Spring Dusk

a photograph by Sonja Bingen, our daughter

early spring dusk

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