CLARENCE P. SOCWELL, a native Utahn and graduate
from the University of Utah, is a poet who
has won over 1000 prizes in national contests including second in
the prestigious grand prize contest of the National Federation of
State Poetry Societies and the grand prize in the 1995 Iliad Literary Awards.
He was named Utah State Poet of the Year in 1977 for his book Intrinsic Tapestries. He is a past president of
League of Utah Writers, Utah State Poetry Society, and The National Federation
of State Poetry Societies as well as holding many other positions in these
organizations.
He tells us:
My mother had scrapbooks full of poems as
newspapers and magazines printed a lot. She taught me poems to recite
before I could read. Once, at about four years old, I recited one on the
radio at a dance-a-thon. My fifth grade teacher encouraged me to write
when I had finished my other work. I filled many notebooks with my verse,
stories, and essays. In high school, I took creative writing in addition
to regular English. Later, a fellow poet Maxine Jennings told me about UTSPS which I joined. So that is how it was and is
still.
A DAY FOR BURNING by Clarence P. Socwell
Smoke spins in gray vertiginous swirls
from dry sticks, leaves, and grass that I toss
in the pit used for firing burnished pottery.
Flames burst through the tangle as cinders
catch the breath of oxygen in the tender breeze.
An occasional gray segment of burned bark
flutters skyward before diving again,
a winged Icarus flying too close to the sun.
Now, three magpies, cousins of Syberian crows,
black symbols of isolation, demiurgic powers,
spiritual strength, swoop from pine to spruce
before cawing and rasping on the silent air.
As I add more tinder to the fire, I wonder what
messages Icarus and crows have spun for me
like smoke from past vertiginous swirls.
