Poetry
By John Thomas Clark
THE WISDOM OF A SENIOR, CITIZEN
In order to subdue the Irish tribes,
Their Parliament 1 was bombarded with bribes
To dissolve it. Pacifying the land
Meant an Act Of Union of England and
Erin. So in the year eighteen-oh-one
The civilizing of the Irish was begun
And English citizenship was the bounty –
Cork now equaled any English county.
While Oxford citizens would never have seen
The ruin of famine-wrecked Skibbereen 2,
Nassau Senior 3 said, while having his fill
Of Paddy’s pig 4, this famine 5 “would not kill
More than one million people, and that would
Scarcely be enough to do any good.”
1 Parliament – the Anglo-Irish Parliament in 1800 was the only legislative body to ever vote itself out of existence
2 Skibbereen – a town in west Cork, Ireland
3 Nassau Senior – a respected economics professor at Oxford University
4 Paddy’s Pig – Paddy is a pejorative term for an Irishman; Irish tenants raised pigs as rent for their English landlords.
5 this famine – There was no famine. Ireland was producing enough food to sustain four times its population throughout the 1840s. The potato failure which began in 1845 was the fifteenth since the Act of Union.
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
Start with an Irish family of five
That has a simple diet. From the womb,
Throughout meatless lives and on to the tomb,
All they ingest to keep themselves alive
Is Potatoes – two hundred eighty pounds
Of them per week 1 . Now, to that family, add
Millions more sustained in good times and bad
By these praties. Fresh from making the rounds
Of Europe, stir in the potato blight
To rob these Irish of their lone food source;
Pour in British indifference; let it course
Through the mixture to blend in with the plight.
Serve knowing no English county or wapentake 2
Will be flattened by this British potato pancake.
1 two hundred eighty pounds of potatoes per week – This figure is found in “Paddy’s Lament” by Thomas Gallagher
2 wapentake – a district in northern England counties e.g. Yorkshire
STAGING THE FAMINE
“The Potato” a one-act, banned in Boston,
Would not trod the boards in Peoria;
European stages would quickly douse
The light on its engagements. Great Britain
Though, licensed it for a run of five-year
Run. In London’s West End theater scene,
English towns? No. Yes – in Skibbereen,
Other Irish venues. With its premiere,
Nassau Senior 1 opined this was written
Just for Ireland. It brought down the house
On Irish millions. Queen Victoria
Did little to ease the holocaust in
Ireland. The audience near Buckingham Palace
Would never have been treated with such malice.
1 Nassau Senior – a well respected Oxford economist who said this potato failure (the Famine) “would not kill more than one million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do any good.”
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John Thomas Clark lives in Scarsdale, NY with his wife, Ginny, his daughter, Chris, and Lex, his black lab service dog who knows it’s playtime when his son, John, visits. A retired NYC teacher, his poetry appeared in The Recorder when its Poetry Chair was occupied by Derek Mahon and again when Eamonn Grennan was so ensconced. Currently, seventy-one of his poems are appearing in twenty-four poetry journals (Exit 13, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Lachryma, Hidden Oak, The Boston Literary Magazine, Contemporary Rhyme, Mobius, Hospital Drive, Cynic, Right Hand Pointing, Clockwise Cat, Byline, Atlanta Review, The Centrifugal Eye, Wordgathering, Tiger’s Eye, Spindle, Paradox, Halfway Down The Stairs, Elysian Fields Quarterly, Perspectives, Mississippi Crow and Vocabula).
Additionally, he has penned The Joy of Lex – an upbeat romp of seventy-five sonnets and a crown which tells the story of life with Lex, the best service dog in the world and Othering– a collection of 150 sonnets which recounts the journey of a person who others, who becomes “an other” facing a burgeoning physical disability.