* Donovan's Poetry *

last updated: 19th October 1998

compiled and maintained by John McIver and Ade Macrow
please send any corrections/additions to john@sabotage.demon.co.uk

produced with help from:
Ivan Kocmarek, Andy Mushynsky and Ian Speers


For a poet such as Donovan, there has been surprisingly little non-song work published. The major source of all Donovan's published writings and drawings has been the 1971 book Dry Songs and Scribbles, which collected together a number of early poems, doodles and prose works. Several uncaptioned photographs were also included. Various other examples of Donovan's work have, however, crept out and this article is an attempt to list all known published poems. Please note that the `Source' line lists only the first known appearance of each piece, although reference to others is usually made in an accompanying note.

Most of the poems in Dry Songs and Scribbles were untitled, so these are listed by first line. Also worthy of note is the inconsistency of style: many poems were entirely lower-case, some were upper-case and some were a mixture of both. Still others had apostrophes around the titles. The list below therefore reproduces the mixture of styles precisely as written.

Dry Songs and Scribbles gives the second section of poems as `1965-1970' at the front but the actual section says - more accurately - `1965-1968'

The following poems have place of composition noted:

Lord of the Reedy River - India 1968
I awoke in the early hours - India 1968
Forbid me not that which is mine - India 1968
Epistle to Derroll - Isles of Greece
Writer in the Sun - Isles of Greece
Buy my cabbages - Skye '69
The wind does shake the - Skye '69
Aug. 14, '69, Skye - self-evident
Aug. 17, '69, Skye - self-evident
Aug. 19, '69, Skye - self-evident


Poems

    1964-1965

  1. Helen - yellow
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  2. poem as I skirt the windy street
    Source: FAB 208 - 1965 (and Dry Songs)
    FAB 208 was a U.K. weekly teenage girls magazine. These four lines were used again in the song Sunny South Kensington

  3. In Portabella
    Source: FAB 208 - 1965
    also reproduced in Dry Songs and Scribbles

  4. My love is a Mergirl
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  5. sad evening river
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  6. to work one day
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  7. did i hear a flutter of wings
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  8. poem of a breeze
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  9. summer
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  10. A new sound
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  11. a poem with no name
    Source: Rave magazine; Issue #17 - June 1965
    Rave was a U.K. weekly teenage girls magazine. This poem was later printed in Dry Songs and Scribbles under the title red

  12. red
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    earlier printed in Rave under the title a poem with no name
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  13. sea mind
    Source: Rave magazine; Issue #17 - June 1965
    this poem was coupled with white snowshow under the title two poems and is not published elsewhere

  14. white snowshoe
    Source: Rave magazine; Issue #17 - June 1965
    this poem was coupled with sea mind under the title two poems and is not published elsewhere

  15. christine is dead
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  16. "The Firefly Dawn"
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  17. whisper in my pillow
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  18. Ballad Called Two
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  19. so sweet an' high pitched
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Ade notes this as a separate poem but I'm not so sure

  20. bright paint
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  21. around what
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  22. Ballad Called Three
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  23. sand grass
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Ade lists this as a separate poem but he's wrong!

  24. "Terracotta"
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  25. armada of pink pelicans
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Ade lists this as a separate poem but he's wrong!

  26. trigonometry sandwiches
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  27. Mumbling by
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    this eight line poem was incorporated into Poke at the Pope. The accompanying black and white illustration was also reproduced in full colour as the front cover of the American Riki Tiki Tavi b/w Roots of Oak single

  28. Little Linda
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    this ten line poem was incorporated into Sleep from Cosmic Wheels

  29. I love the girl in white
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  30. Damp uncomfortable
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  31. I jumped
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  32. a dream of little
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  33. seagull
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  34. the quiet afternoon
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  35. shooting stars are seen
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  36. I write to you this letter
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  37. The Skipper
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  38. Never Settle Down
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  39. I've seen the plastic arm death
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  40. Song for the Sparrow Child in My Mind
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  41. a terracotta love poem
    Source: Rave magazine; Issue #17 - June 1965
    later printed in Dry Songs and Scribbles

  42. As I peer out of one eye
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  43. I want to live till I die
    Source: Mirabelle - 1965
    Mirabelle was a weekly U.K. teenage girls magazine. This poem not reproduced anywhere else

  44. Hatfield...
    Source: Mirabelle - 1965
    this poem was not reproduced anywhere else

  45. to all NME readers
    Source: New Musical Express - 1965
    N.M.E. is a U.K. weekly music paper. This poem was not reproduced anywhere else

  46. poem for spring in a butterfly's wing
    Source: FAB 208 - 1966
    also reproduced in Dry Songs and Scribbles ??? IS THIS TRUE ADE ???

    1965-1968

  47. Your voice is like the sound
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  48. The Voyage of the Moon
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Voyage of the Moon

  49. Easter Monday
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  50. I do not long for you
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Ade doesn't split this up into three separate poems, I do! I think I'm right

  51. Lord of the Reedy River
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Lord of the Reedy River from H.M.S. Donovan. Also sung by Donovan in cameo role as student in 1969 film If it's Tuesday, this Must be Belgium

  52. Twas half a moon ago
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  53. I awoke in the early hours
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  54. Hold now, be not feart
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  55. Forbid me not that which is mine
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  56. Will Our Visions Of Tomorrow Mingle With Those Of Yesterday?
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as In an Old-fashioned Picture Book. Perhaps always intended as a song - hence the `Verse 1', `Verse 2' etc. at the beginning of each of the three stanzas

  57. Jack Daw
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  58. Epistle To Derroll
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Epistle to Derroll. Tribute to long-time hero, banjo player Derroll Adams, born in Belgium but then domiciled in Portland, Maine, America

  59. John
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    minus the `John' title, this was also included in the liner notes for A Gift from a Flower to a Garden

  60. Writer in the Sun
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Writer in the Sun

  61. The Long Dawn
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  62. Two Lovers
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    frequently performed `live' circa 1968; Donovan usually intoning the words over an acoustic background of recorders etc. Never recorded officially but on The Reedy River bootleg and all other retitled versions of this disc. Often mistakenly attributed to Irish poet William Butler Yeats and is normally called A Poem by Yeats

  63. Little pebble upon the sand
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    the introductory lead-in to The Pebble and the Man from Donovan in Concert. This is usually now omitted `live' and was re-recorded under the title Happiness Runs for Barabajagal

  64. Song of the Naturalist's Wife
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Song of the Naturalist's Wife

  65. Isle Of Islay
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Isle of Islay

  66. In the cage of circumstance
    Source: Jackie - 1966
    a lengthy five stanza verse, written especially for Jackie, a weekly magazine for teenage girls

  67. Precious little
    Source: What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid (U.K. LP) - May 1965
    short poem printed on the back cover of the album. Also reprinted in the Looking Very Tired from the Trip songbook and on the Marble Arch re-issue of the album

  68. in the kaleidoscope hallway
    Source: Looking Very Tired from the Trip - 1965
    poem on front of the songbook

  69. I've never seen a jerking man touch a flower
    Source: The Universal Soldier (U.K. EP) - Summer 1965
    two stanza anti-war poem from the back cover

  70. I thank the Queen of Living Things
    Source: Sunshine Superman (U.K. LP) - June 1967
    from the back cover AND IN DRY SONGS AND SCRIBBLES as Prayer of Thanks

  71. Perhaps
    Source: Royal Albert Hall Programme - 1967
    minus the opening verse, this became Mr. Wind

  72. so here am I
    Source: Savile Theatre Programme - 1967
    nine lines - four couplets, one single line

  73. In a silent canadian wood
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  74. The Ferris Wheel
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Ferris Wheel. Note the extra `the' in song title.

  75. Catch the Wind
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Catch the Wind

  76. Good Morning Mr. Wind
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Mr. Wind

  77. Sweetheart
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  78. O daffodil in yellow splendarrayed
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  79. The Lullaby of Spring
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as The Lullaby of Spring

  80. wish I now were off some Island
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  81. A night of moonbathers
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  82. I remember very well
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  83. the child tastes the sea
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  84. The Magpie
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as The Magpie

  85. don't look now
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  86. your winter of changes relents
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  87. Enid with child
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    refers to his American girlfriend Enid, with whom he lived in an island not far from Skye. Also mentions Donovan Junior (though not by name): his first child with Enid
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  88. O Youthful Mother
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    another poem about the joys of parenthood

  89. Just to arrange the thoughts so strange
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  90. Young Girl Blues
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Young Girl Blues

  91. Widow with Shawl (a portrait)
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Widow with Shawl (A Portrait)

  92. Legend of a Girl-Child Linda
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Legend of a Girl Child Linda. Note the missing hyphen in song title

  93. Little Ben
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Little Ben

  94. The Tinker and the Crab
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as The Tinker and the Crab

  95. Christo
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    appears as My Friend Christo on Folk One (Moon Over Clare) fan tape
    typed in by Andy Mushynsky

  96. The wild flowers
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  97. Timothy timid, came to town
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  98. Buy my cabbages
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  99. the wind does shake the
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  100. Aug. 14, '69, Skye
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  101. Aug. 17, '69, Skye
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Ade does not separate Aug. 18, '69 for some reason!

  102. Aug. 19, '69, Skye
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

    here there should be a poem called "I am a poem" but Ade missed it out for some reason

  103. Seeking Sorrow's Joy
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    Seeking Sorrow's Joy was performed live with Open Road in 1970

  104. in the lands where there is no wind
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  105. Memory
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  106. thurs-night 18 feb
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  107. fri-night 19 feb
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  108. There is an Ocean
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as There is an Ocean

  109. The Garden of Truth
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  110. Moon
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  111. sailing homeward
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as Sailing Homeward

  112. Hotel Juliet
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  113. Porthole
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

  114. How silly the politician looks
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    heard as How Silly

  115. The European Dream
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    appears as European Hotel on Folk Two (In An Old-Fashioned Picture Book) fan tape

  116. The Crunch
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles
    The Crunch was performed in rehearsals in 1973 and on fan tape

  117. Poorman's Sunshine
    Source: Dry Songs and Scribbles

    1969-

  118. where did we lose the way to do nothing?
    Source: H.M.S. Donovan (U.K. LP) - 1971
    reminiscences on lost childhood on inner gatefold

  119. once upon a tiny time
    Source: H.M.S. Donovan (U.K. LP) - 1971

  120. At Last I Came To The Mountain
    Source: Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964-1976 (U.S. LP) - 1992
    included in longbook with the compilation

a poem with no name

red
bled the sea
with sunset
orange
slid out
on its pastel skin
blue
through the eye
was cool
cloud
hustled
bult up huge
a twist of tangerine harlequin
zapped across the night

by donovan

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek


sea mind

sea mind
is
a wind tossed
balloon
as spring sun
quickens on
the grass blades
by the sand bank

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek


white snowshoe

white snowshoe
hares
dab the blue snow
softly
in the pines
toward some
great thinkin'

by donovan

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek


a terracotta love poem

velvet killed
its colour blue
for reds an browns
upon your
beautiful arms
an i can see you
shimmerin
like a precious stone
playin in the lights
of your eyes
i can soak my mouth
upon the ends of the
towrin cage of your hair

by donovan

typed in by Ivan Kocmarek


Precious little

Precious little
Do we
Drink the sun
Kiss the rain
Whisper to the wind
Precious little
Do we
Think with our hearts
And not with our minds
Please teach our children
The real scene
Don't let them find out
That good can be bad
And bad can be good.

originally typed in by Ian Speers


I've never seen a jerking man touch a flower 
I've never seen a jerking man touch a flower
never seen a fast man dig the slowness
never seen the dream-end of the ridiculous state the world is in
never seen anger in Joanny when the hate-words of confused
minds lap her shores.


I've seen Derroll Addams cry --
so full of us all that he spills over his cheeks
(I pray he sees tomorrow's sun)
I've seen bewildered rambling streams of blood on black skin
I've seen V-Bombers growing in a field of insulated grass
daring their masters
I've seen the advertisement
"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IN TODAYS' MODERN ARMY"
beside photographs of mutilated Vietnamese children
I've seen the has-been, the could have been
an' the should have been in the glazed gaze of "passers-by"
I've seen the "LITTLE PRINCE" in many people an' felt happy
I've seen people scorn me an' warn me it's never torn me
I've seen the dream of Freedom .........

a sometimes fading image.
                                          Donovan -- Summer 1965

I thank the Queen of Living Things

I thank the Queen of Living Things
for showing me each day
All the pretty beauty things
living in her day

And I thank her kindly
for bestowing upon me
The simple gift to daily lift
my tiny eyes to see.


Source: H.M.S. Donovan U.K. LP - 1971

where did we lose the way to do nothing?
somewhere in the childhood wood.
where has our soft-glow gone?
to sleep within our hearts.
grow-up — grow-up — grow-up
oh dear
i want my naivty back
look at the children


Source: H.M.S. Donovan U.K. LP - 1971

once upon a tiny time
a time of touch and tingle
feelings came in river rhyme
fairies lived in dingle.
long ago along a road
a day of dally-dilly
water tasted berry-good
singing shally-shilly
shally-shilly shally-shilly
sally will we dilly dally
shall we silly go ...

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Last updated: 19th October 1998