ethel mortenson davis

The poems in I Sleep Between the Moons of New Mexico are as condensed and glittering as the facets of a diamond. Words are used with a beautiful, powerful economy that expresses healing, anti-war, nature, the human experience, and other large themes. This is imagistic poetry that combines the complex metaphorical emotion and meaning of Emily Dickenson with the intense visual language of an H.D. or Amy Lowell. Davis's skill as a pastel artist has been metamorphised into words that explore an interior New Mexico landscape as spare, extravagant, and unique as a Steller's Jay flashing blue wings against the backdrop of soaring red cliffs.