Tom I. Davis

’34 to ’13

Tom Davis, inauspicious, rivered
In Peaceful Valley, didn’t miss
The point, the little jests delivered
From points upstream, the hugs and piss
Of landscapes peopled through all seasons
With love and love’s subtle treasons,
The unforlorn beatitudes
Of losses, pains, of thoughts and moods,
The here and now’s eclipse diminished
By wives and children, poems, lies,
And truth writ small within the lines
Until that gnarled finger finished
His last touch, his last salute
To life, though silent, never mute.

Comments

  1. Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OP says

    A convert?

    Score.

  2. Quin Finnegan says

    Holy moly! Boxing! W.H. Auden!! Guemes island!!! This guy is like my long lost uncle or something. Would really like to meet him when I’m next in Spokane.

    Marvelous poem, by the way. Beatitudes/moods and especially salute/mute are great rhymes. “Love and love’s subtle treasons” very … Real, as the kids say.

    Great stuff.

    • Matthew Lickona says

      Is “Spokane” code for “heaven” now?

    • Jonathan Potter says

      Tom passed away on January 20.

      • Sally Freund says

        This is a beautiful poem about Tom…I was just thinking about him after 40 years have passed, decided to look him up on the web and this site came up. I wish i would have looked sooner. He was a great friend and teacher of mine at the Alternative High School in Oak Harbor, Wa. that my mom help start to keep me from dropping out of high school all together. Tom taught me many things about just being who I was and at 15, of course, I was abit unsure. I feel grateful he passed through my life. May he rest in peace…I am sure he will.

      • Ian Woofenden says

        I’m seeking the full text of a poem Tom wrote on Guemes Island in 1980 about the Guemes ferry. It was titled something like “Cadillac Boat” or “Big Fat Cadillac”.

        Can you help me connect with someone who might have a copy of this? I’d like to share it with others who have fond memories of Tom’s years on Guemes.

        Thanks,

        Ian

        • Jonathan Potter says

          Ian — I’ll see if I can locate the poem or someone who can locate it. If possible, I’ll post it here in the comments.

          • Ian Woofenden says

            Thanks, much, Jonathan!

            I worked with Tom banging nails on a house on the SE point of Guemes in 1979-80, and also ended up moving into the house he and his family moved out of the following year. I really enjoyed his spunk, irreverence, and generosity.

            Ian

  3. Great poetry. Thanks.

  4. Jonathan Potter says

    Tom Davis at Danger! Live Writers: http://youtu.be/WDWH5U90lBI

  5. Mari Morrow says

    I have not seen Tom since I left Guemes in 1979. I’d like to think I knew him at his best – directing plays at the community center, tutoring me in writing, teaching his young children how to read poetry. Tom was my father’s best friend, and our two families spent many, many days together. What a hoot he was!

Leave a Reply to Big Jon, Bully Cancel reply

*