Long Fergus Poems

Introduction: one of the nice aspects of having an oeuvre as a poet is the ability to see where you have changed over the years. this is such a poem where i can see the...

Read More

the children wait on the shore
eyes fastened to the horizon
behind them stand the women
with a gaze far more serious
all impervious to rain and wind
the hurricane had turned inland
last night it was moving north to Baja
the...

Read More

i watch you sleep
wondering where you are
the hair
falls down to the cheeks
spilling upon the pillows
moon intrudes
throwing shadows around
our cat stirs
your mouth is slightly open
as if you are about to whisper
i hear the violins leap in...

Read More

another Bukowski nightmare begins
the castrato sings below
while she calls from the minaret
fossicking thru the memories 
for our linked verse
while i, sitting beneath the coolabah
river on the run 
waiting for some rabbit or Alice
oh incorrigible moon
have...

Read More

we awoke to five machine guns
staring at us
all were American made
therein a comfort
another American in a foreign land
the caveat, Federales were holding them
we were naked
Sally from the Alley and i
wanted to ask us a few...

Read More

THE DAY FERGUS THE FROG CROAKED
 (A Children's Rhyme by Joan Donnelly Ellis Oct. 2015)

Fergus the Frog was lazy and fat and a worshipper of idleness
 He'd lie on his lily pad all day ...refusing...

Read More

i was searching for survivors
in all the right places, finding none
my deepest wishes dissipating
probably for the best i always tell myself
watching it come apart
was half the pleasure
as well as half the pain
never needing a rhyme,...

Read More

is this then my fate
watching the scurrying crabs
rearranging sands, counting the waves
the wary eyes of the magnificent frigates above
your eyes were to me
exotic birds of aquamarine
whose free flight
stole my thoughts
my breath
my heart
now i have a...

Read More

the conversations are rolled into the corners
stretching into a fifth dimension
perpendicular to all points
this is where i love you
curled back upon itself
unavailable to the eye
the physicist’s graven image
produced at energy levels
no longer on demand
counterfeited
lying useless...

Read More

you spoke of boundaries
allowed me but secret gates
acknowledged only in the shadows
my ability to separate your reason
from your logic
and that is what you
never cared for in me
words
you gave me many
that idled away
i loved you with...

Read More

Like a mess of hooting school kids freed for vacation,
They come honking and scolding

Long before you see them they come honking and scolding

Hidden from sight by leafy trees,
They are loudly scolding, urging, bragging,
“Get flapping”. “My...

Read More

trust is a precious gift
once broken
we may never repair
shards that cut to the bone
a heart empties
love is sometimes 
at its best a vertiginous climb
of heavens and hells
so enduring yet fragile
a bouquet graced vase
becomes the mistake
lying...

Read More

outside lies the snow
each flake its own uniqueness
beginning descending moisture, bifurcation
eructing tendrils, forming, unpredictable
as is the dichotomy of life
the triumph against entropy

limbs lie empty, skeletons
leaves of feathered frost
birds are few
lost in the hemispheres, patterns
and for...

Read More