Two poems by Clare Harner in the Detroit NEWS

Properly credited to "Clare Harner," these short pieces from 1935-6 were submitted to Elmer C. Adams, longtime poetry editor for the Detroit News and published there in his regular newspaper column of "Random Shots." Both items may be found on genealogybank.com

Detroit News - November 6, 1935
via genealogybank.com

New Horizon

This friendly sky,
   This unchanging dome,
This is my refuge—
   And this my home.

You take the city,
   You take the sea!
I'll take the country
   Where I am free.

For the city is slavery;
   Loving is, too.
Goodby to the land . . .
   I'm going with you!

CLARE HARNER. [Detroit News, November 6, 1935]

***

Detroit News - November 6, 1935
via genealogybank.com

Turncoat

Turn the coat inside out
And flout
Its jaunty plaid to the sun.
What does it matter that one
Has worn it till it's old?
The inner hue is bold . . .
So turn the coat outside in
And grin! 

CLARE HARNER. [Detroit News, February 4, 1936]

***

Clare Harner's "Immortality" selected by Hope Ridings Miller for reprinting in the Washington Post on Christmas Eve, 1934

On Monday, December 24, 1934 The Washington Post reprinted Clare Harner's original poem "Immortality" with five others, all by women. 

On page 12 under the head of "Gleanings from Current Verse," Hope Ridings Miller selected six poems from various poetry magazines including two from The Gypsy, "Immortality" by Clare Harner and "Christmas" by Inez Rice.

1.  "Christmas" by Inez Rice, from THE GYPSY
2. "Falling Snow" by Marie Barton, from CHOIR PRACTICE
3. "Christmas in Tucson" by Berta Hart Nance, from KALEIDOGRAPH
4. "Quaker Women at Meeting" by Sara Bundy Pence, from QUAKER BONNETS described as "a presentation brochure published by the Herald-Silhouettes Press" of Ontario, California.
5. "Immortality" by Clare Harner, from THE GYPSY
6. "The Star Child" by Claribell Weeks Avery, from DECIMAL

One unfortunate typo appeared in the Washington Post version of Clare Harner's "Immortality" which reads

"I am the day transcending light" 

where The Gypsy had 

"I am the day transcending night."

Kisses at the Turnstile Gate

Transcribed below from "Choir Practice," A Chorus of Contemporary Poetry, conducted by Ellen M. Carroll" in the Charleston Evening Post of November 13, 1936. The original poem "Kisses at the Turnstile Gate" is by Clare Harner, not "Horner" as misprinted in the South Carolina newspaper.

KISSES AT THE TURNSTILE GATE

I'll ride this way again, irresistibly drawn
   To travel once more the lonely road from the sea
   That you and I explored, glad just to be.
And I'll get off my horse to watch the dawn;
   I'll sit on the log beneath a maple tree
   And laugh at memories of you and me
Who sat there once and gave our hearts in pawn.

I'll listen to crickets, and hear the noisy trills
   Of jays. I'll trace the changing carpet, inlaid
   With leaves in rich mosaic, light and shade.
I'll watch the lizards hunt where the sunlight spills.
   I'll watch the twisting, silver brook invade
   The trees that rise beyond the farther glade,
And farther yet the distant blue of the hills.

I'll see all this again, and mock the past
   Because my pride is stronger now than hate:
   But when I pass the broken turnstile gate
I'll look the other way and ride by fast
   For I might see a phantom lover wait.
   My pride is strong—but I shan't hesitate
Lest I recall your kisses, which could not last.

Clare Horner [Harner],
Kansas.

Charleston, SC Evening Post - June 11, 1937
Found on Genealogy Bank

No Need for a Band

From "Choir Practice," A Chorus of Contemporary Poetry, conducted by Ellen M. Carroll" in the Charleston Evening Post, November 13, 1936:

NO NEED FOR A BAND

In my little rut
   I serenely go,
Without swagger or strut
   Or fanfare or show.

No need to doubt
   The way I take . . .
I couldn't get out
   With less than a quake!

The path is fair
   I can't go wrong:
Without worry or care,
   I travel with song.

— Clare Harner.   Kansas. 

Charleston, South Carolina Evening Post - November 13, 1936
Found on Genealogy Bank

With Song

From "Choir Practice," A Chorus of Contemporary Poetry, conducted by Ellen M. Carroll" in the Charleston Evening Post, Friday, April 10, 1936:

WITH SONG

So little
Impression my life
Has made—like a rock skimming
The water, leaving series of rings
Widening, fading, gone. Yet—
Pebbles hum gay tunes
While they skip.

— Clare Harner.

Kansas. 

 

 

Charleston, South Carolina Evening Post - April 10, 1936
Found on Genealogy Bank

He May Not Choose

Here is another poem by Clare Harner collected in "Choir Practice," a monthly column of contemporary poetry selected by Charleston poet Ellen M. Carroll--this one appeared in the Charleston, South Carolina Evening Post on February 12, 1937; found on genealogybank.com.

Charleston Evening Post - February 12, 1937

 

HE MAY NOT CHOOSE

Man is ruler of mind,

     But the heart is master of man:

He can chart his course, to find

     That love can change the plan

-- Clare Harner, Kansas.

Three poems by Clare Harner

Shown above, page 274 from my personal copy of Important American Poets, ed. Edith Warren (Valiant House, 1938) with three poems by Clare Harner, later Clare Harner Lyon:

SCARECROW

(Hokku)

Hate is a scarecrow
That frightens all singing birds
From the fields of life.

PURITAN 

Corseted are my emotions
       Till I'm unwholesomely slim;
I'm laced with prescribed devotions --
       By nature, I'm not so prim!

SHE WALKED WITH THREE 

Three were the hounds that followed her,

       Though never far behind.

Relentless their walk as whispered slur --

       Illusions of harried mind.

And all who saw her thought her queer

       As she measured her hunted pace;

She looked as if a presence were near,

       With fright a veil for her face.

And only she knew the curs were there:

The hounds of envy, pride, and despair.