a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
“Well,” said the walrus to the elephant upon the shore.
“Have you heard the news the fish are telling
To the whale that runs the General Store?”
“Yes, I’ve heard,” answered the elephant with an ivory grin.
“I’ve heard the crazy, busy-body fish
Are trying to make the whale think that he is thin!”
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
Like fat, old clowns with hilly pants
The clouds stride up the mountain sides
And foam their draughts of bright, white brew
And shout and dance with joyous cries.
I stand three hundred miles away
Upon a grainy yellow plain
And wonder what sweet airy sap
Will fetch clouds past the mountain range.
Although written a long time ago, in a year of terrible drought, this seems an appropriate poem for this drought stricken year.
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a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
“I’m going fishing,” said the king.
“I’m going early in the morning.
I’m going with my counselors.
We’re all to go a fishing.
“I’ve hired a boy to bait the hook.
I’ve hired a lad to hold the pole.
I’ve paid a boy to slip the fish
From off the hook into the creel.
“I’m going fishing,” said the king.
“I’m going early in the morning.
I’m going with my counselors.
We’re all to go a fishing.”
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a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
The night is like a big black pot
That’s full of laughing stars.
The stars are twinkling, bright headlights
Of big, black motor cars.
I know, for out within the woods,
Bush-hiding from the sky,
I heard the far off beeping honks
Of cars within the sky!
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a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
The old moon is a cleaning lady
With high, star-buttoned, coal-black shoes.
She comes to work when sleep and dreams
Are all that’s left of me and you.
She sweeps the cobwebs from the sky
With brooms of shining silver light
And scrubs the day floors of the sun
With waters darker than the night.
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by Thomas Davis
Lost and lonely in the swamp
A wounded goose lay wild and still,
Its heart wild with the hope for life,
Its eyes calm with a sun-strong will.
The day passed over in the sky.
The hours grew long with passing time.
The night grew thick with silver stars
And swamp tides ebbed and flowed with brine.
Then morning broke above the trees
And warm, soft light surged through the day.
The goose lay wounded in the sun.
In swampy waters wild it lay.
Then high above the swamp’s wet bog
A flock of geese veed through the air,
Their honking strong with life and flight,
Their hearts wing-wild and flying fair.
The wounded goose brought up its head
And honked, its life and heartbeats strong.
It lifted wings and beat the ground
And strained its voice in plaintive song.
The day passed over in the sky.
The wounded goose lay wild and still,
Its heart wild with its hope for life,
Its eyes calm with a sun-strong will.
Note: This children’s poem, written in the late 1970s, was written to help my girls see the importance of recognizing the heart that allows even those wounded one way or another by life to keep on going. This has always seemed to be a poem about courage to me. Reading it again after all these years I still admire the wounded goose and its powerful yearning for becoming strong enough to join a flock flying through the skies.
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by Thomas Davis
the journey of the elephants
One day in early June
Shook trees and shook the peaceful ground
And even shook the moon!
Then, with a movement huge and slow,
The herd began to run,
And thunder pealed amidst the hills
So loud it shook the sun!
Note: This was the first children’s poem I wrote. We were going to college in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Sonja loved to ride on my back and call me her elephant herd. Mary had just been born and was in her crib while her older sister and I played in our small living room, and so this small poem was born.
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by William Bingen, our grandson, his first poem
The white people took his land.
Earned respect from his people.
Confidently fought in battles.
United the Shawnee People with his bravery.
Many people didn’t believe the white people had the right to take the land.
Shawnee battled the new settlers.
Earth is beloved to them.
He died in the Battle of Thames in 1813.
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fourwindowspress 