14 April, 2020: Beyond Cana
Read a Poem
Beyond Cana
by Jenny Clark
Young men stand dark and tall as rainwashed trees.
Bridesmaids are columns of green like stems of lilies
about to bloom. The bride walking toward her waiting groom
is a drift of light on the arm of her father.
All of us are dressed in our best as if life or death could come of it.
Something old. Something new.
The groom has shaved his mohawk. The bride has painted
her toenails blue.
We love the pure risk of it. Sitting empty in our pews
like stone jars in the courtyard we wait to be filled.
“Beyond Cana” by Jenny Clark, from The Listening Eye. Kent State University, Geauga Campus. 1998. Used by permission of the author.
Jenny Clark—teacher, poet, grandmother, nature lover—co-leads nature writing workshops once each season at Look About Lodge. You can find her the first Saturday of most months offering a journal class at Hamlet Village in Chagrin Falls. At sunrise each morning she walks beside a lake, looking, listening and discovering new delights. Her poems have appeared in small magazines, her pies have been welcomed to many tables, and her journals that explore questions you may never have thought to ask fill an entire closet.
Write a Poem
Write a narrative poem about learning to cook something from someone. Include a quote that the person said about cooking that has wider implications.