A Poetry Syllabus
{An Umbrella Special Feature}


John Thomas Clark

is a retired New York City elementary school teacher who lives in Scarsdale with his wife Ginny, his daughter Chris, his son John and his black Lab service dog, Lex.

Among his numerous poetry credits are OCEAN, The Recorder, The Barefoot Muse, and Byline.

The Joy of Lex–his light-hearted book of fifty-six poems and fifty-six color photographs recounting life with Lex–was released in July 2009.


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At The Bronze Age Cathedral

In Alba, the mourners, rimed with sea spray,
bore the body, from the shore, up the brae,
into the stone circle. When the white clay
disks were set on its eyes, then did the fay
folk place the child on the gray holystone
as long silver shafts of the round moon shone
down. With red Ochre and blue Woad did the crone
paint the child. Quick strikes to each long limb bone
with the Bronze hammer freed, from the marrow,
her spirit. Then, into the green barrow,
was she taken, lambskin wrapped, a narrow
niche, there, to safeguard her from the harrow
of Wolf and want, as the keen of kin and kith
rose between the stones and spread along the frith.


This poem was inspired by a description of an event on page 24 of “The Last Rainbow” by Parke Godwin.
 
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