Page 35 - TalesoftheParadiseRidge-Fall2020_Neat

Pages from the Ash

By Don Clark
Recently I was playing piano at Fridays For Lunch, the weekly free lunch at Paradise Lutheran Church. Don Clark stopped to say hello.
He’s probably best known for the incredible Christmas display he and his wife put up every year at their home off Pentz Road. That was
their pride and joy, and they were featured on TV and news articles from time to time.
A few minutes after I resumed playing piano, Don walked up and put a set of poems on the the piano. After reading these I realized that I
must share them. Here are just four. Don Criswell

Life Really is Beautiful Just an Observance

Bitterness my friend is no friend of mine. The raccoons rule the night,
it comes from the bowels of ugliness to destroy what is so divine. The crows at 6 am .
It awakens you with the taste of salt upon your tongue I’d like to think I rule the earth
then allows you not the love of the friends you are among. but they both feel the same.

If this is to be my fate after the fire burnt my home, I cannot fly or soar like them
then leave me in the desert heat so forever I may roam. nor do I have teeth or claws.
For I am not a man no more with gladness in my heart. Anyone coming against these beasts
Not but a walking skeleton with bones falling apart. will surely leave with some scars.

Let me have the happiness that in my house did live, I do not want to change my life
and take away the loneliness that now the ashes give. to become one of them.
For I am a man of music spilling from my fingertips, But I do respect these critters,
hoping to take my listeners on fancy little trips. and to them I write this hymn.

So you see if bitterness is allowed into this heart of mine, I spent a magical two weeks living amongst the ash.
my fingers will turn against me with light to no longer shine. I saw several deer looking just for grass.
I must remember the sounds of joy, But the crows and raccoons were what impressed me the most.
not the sound of breaking glass. I had become a guest of theirs. Of being human I could no longer
And to let the present with coming future boast.
be as lively as my past.
World History 101

My house is gone, as many are,
but Venus still dances with the moon.
Life on Earth is going to return,
Scrap of Scrap just don’t expect it too soon.

I like old cars, I know I’m not alone. We just don’t know how life will be
To see them burnt up chills me to the bone. when all is said and done.
The humpback Nash on Bille Road But even with all the talk there has been ...
the Henry J on Pentz. no changes in the travels of the sun.

Insurance companies are ready to pay I still walk upon my own dirt,
for the stuff we lost that miserable day. hard and reddish brown.
But to an insurance company It makes no difference to the dirt
it’s only dollars and cents. that my house has tumbled down.

But they can’t ever replace even one fancy old car, The trees are all gone but the stumps remain,
they’re not in the business of shining up your star. to remind us of the shade.
Your roadster, your deuce that defined you We think not of what we used to think
was just something behind your fence, Now new memories are made.
Maybe you loved that old Model A The red clouds at sunset are now easier to see,
because you knew you would work on it someday. the better view doesn’t appeal that much to me.
How much for that love can insurance pay I’m very happy the sky’s still blue instead of that awful black.
For sheet metal burnt and bent? That was a day in history that ain’t ever coming back.
I lost a Chevy, my friend lost his rod, That’s enough now, I think I’ve spoken my piece.
and if you escaped with your life, thank your God. I’ll put my pen down for now.
So for that I will bow my head with a nod, I will look at my town and throw her a kiss
but what nut to turn with my wrench? then bend to my waist with a bow.