bentenlaughing

In The Gardens he sees all the dull statue splashed green adored by the fountain the young couple eating chicken, the roaming delighted licking dog and the lonely man with his loaf of bread pigeons' claws on his wrist like a woman's fingernails himself a scavenger poisoned by tossed crumbs of laughter seeing all, a passionate sparrow crowns himself emperor - John Ellison Davies

  THE EMBRACE   “you have to love them" I tell her "It's your only defence"   she is puzzled at first, then memory blooms as it will when a storm has passed   recognition rainbows in her hazel eyes there is a clue of eagerness on the map   her indelicate history delicately etched sweats like glass in the palm she offers   pressing gently enough to shatter worlds     EVERYDAY MASTERPIECE enthroned on their cool verandah the old ones connoisseurs of light and shade resolve all problems of proportion each fragile gesture a brush-stroke in a self-portrait nearing completion John Ellison Davies  © 2023 https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/poetry/states-of-poetry-2017/states-of-poetry-tasmania/author/1946-johnellisondavies

  THE SPHINX AT YOUR DOOR   at this pebbled frontier   steps a lame man   singing heads I win   tails I win   free of the leaping herd's   nostalgia for the precipice   lost   in the dusty interval   between the bubble sun   and bubble moon   (those liars)   all that is outside   him torrents in him   but he sings   I am a porous man   heads I win   tails I win Lake George near Canberra MUST IT BE SO?   it must be so   as the gathering storm impartial   holds its breath   each raindrop mirrors earth, ocean, mountains   trembles lovingly   and begins its fall   this is the law   allow only joy John Ellison Davies https://sites.google.com/site/johnellisondavies/home https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2006/author/1946-johnellisondavies

Responsibilities poets rise early (don’t laugh) aware of their responsibilities to save some people from themselves to save language itself from the same people to remind you we live in a land too old for petty thoughts John Ellison Davies https://sites.google.com/site/johnellisondavies/home

  Mountain Poem we question the morning where to begin and morning’s crazy face questions us with a light grin through cracked wooden shutters, a sceptical pattern on the wall we tease with shadows shall we answer first shall we introduce ourselves to the clouds the early clouds that graze at our door and sulk for lost moonlit pasture? John Ellison Davies https://twitter.com/johndavies45?lang=en https://quadrant.org.au/writer/john-ellison-davies/ https://books.apple.com/au/author/john-ellison-davies/id649130384 https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/author/1946-johnellisondavies