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.