Owen Davies

Owen Davies was one of the first children to attend the Grove School in the Uplands. Owen learnt to drive, travelled abroad and successfully ran his own printing business. He enjoyed writing and these are examples of his poetry.

NEED

By Owen Davies

I needed to walk in the white moonlight
along this thin rind of virgin beach,
With dry crabs rustling in tranquil pools
while gulls on effortless wings dive and screech,
And long tropical shadows, my sole companion
tonight is all that I honestly require,
To hold out my arms in freedom, yet;
clutching the isolation I longingly desire.

I didn’t need to be an anonymous person
in a conspicuous Group­ – easy to discard,
Conveniently classified as just “one of them”
creating humiliation, pleasure a mere facade,
But tonight let this sweet experience flow
like crystal water from a fictitious well,
As I tentatively sip my freshly found freedom
amidst the packaged ostentation of this hotel.

Now, in my room I draw the flaccid curtains
close the shutters fast against the night,
As if turning my back in selfish rejection
from the slim beckoning finger of moonlight,
For tomorrow will be the threshold to eternity
it will be safe, it will shelter and enfold,
Yet, deeply engraved with the sad reality
that tomorrow my new freedom will be old.

This Poem was inspired by the tremendous elation of spending a holiday abroad – completely alone.

SELF PORTRAIT OF A POET

By Owen Davies

I’m restless in bleak poetic solitude
as my idol thoughts sway to and fro
through my wandering imagination
Scrutinising, scanning feeble ideas
from the strings of a humble brain
I will fight with the creative agony
spilling out words in anticipation
that my satisfaction maybe fulfilled.

So late into the darkness I battle on
no rap tap typewriter companionship
only the word processor’s cold silence
As quiet as a neighbourhood in sleep
yet from this jet black desolate serenity
emerges the laboured birth of a poem
Eagerly I read words scattered on paper
while inwardly my hopes remain broken
as once again I experience inadequacy

This poem was accepted for publication in the nationwide Poetry Now Millennium Anthology