a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Tag Archives: stars
Poems
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The universe
throws out poems
across the stars,
but only the poet
catches them.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
A Lover’s Song
by Thomas Davis
We strung along a priceless string of stars
And made the moon a pendant just to show.
I cut the night into a dress, the bars
Of moonlight setting stars and dress aglow.
You laughed with love deep in your doe-brown eyes.
You swirled the universe upon your hem.
As dizzy as a lover filled with love’s first lies,
I watched your eyes grow dazzled by your gems.
Then, with a shrug, your dress fell to the ground.
The night became a puddle at your feet.
Stars glistened in a heap, their skies cut down.
The moon gleamed silver-cold without your heat.
We swirled together deep into the night,
Our years illuminated, blazing light.
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
Lobster-Colored Sun of Fire
a love poem to Ethel by Thomas Davis
Like a snowflake in August is my love,
Like an August sun on a winter day,
Like the small thunder of a shining raindrop
Striking on a roof of stone.
O lobster colored sunfire,
How can the heavens be strewn with stars
When the sun has not felt the coolness
Of the gently silvered moon?
I have felt snowflakes in August
And been warmed by an August sun in winter.
I have heard small thunder ringing,
Brought by the drumming of raindrops,
Upon the stone roof of my soul.
O lobster colored sunfire,
Do you not know the differences made by love?
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
Star Songs
a children’s poem by Thomas Davis written for Sonja and Mary when they were young
There was a song that I once heard
When I was very, very young.
I heard the songs of bright night stars
Cold singing in a silent tongue.
There’s no one else within the world
Who heard their silver lullabye,
But now I’m telling you, my loves:
Go out and listen to the sky!
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
Women
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
When will we take
half the earth and stars
back?
Stand up and protect
the children,
the animals
and the earth?
When will we take back
Our God?
Our Mother?
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
Whatever Happened to the Laundry Lady?
by Thomas Davis
a children’s poem written when Sonja and Mary were young
After the stars were all hung out,
Some wet and some half dry,
Rain dripped down from heaven’s black
And cleaned the blue into the sky.
Then the laundry woman left
And let the stars grow dry and cold,
Shining, flapping in the sky,
Becoming stars instead of clothes.
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
A Tall, Thin-Necked Giraffe
a children’s poem by Thomas Davis
I saw a thin-necked, brown giraffe
Walk through my tallest, night-long dreams,
Its long legs flowing like the wind,
Its neck as thin as desert streams.
“Say,” I said. “Please, oh tell me, sir.
What are you doing in my dreams?
My dreams are full of dancing stars
And not giraffes brown, thin, and lean.”
The brown giraffe then looked around,
As if it hadn’t really looked,
And then it bolted from my dream
Into the pages of this book.
Filed under Poetry, Thomas Davis
River Stones
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
There was a time when I solved the riddle of the universe.
I looked up into the night sky and knew the world would end in fire.
The wonderment of a child turning a smooth stone in his hands was gone.
The stars? A mere ceiling over the world.
Now that I have grown I have no longer solved
the riddle of the universe.
The universe has become a small, smooth river stone
that I turn again and again in my hands.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
Night Sky
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The stars laugh and laugh,
laughing in an ocean of laughter,
moving-water laughter,
until the sky can hold no more
and joins in laughing
with black face and shining teeth.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, Poetry
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