Page 8 - Robeson Living Summer 2019

for her Master of Arts degree.

Her tribute to the Lumbee was published in the 1954-1955 Na-
tional Poetry Anthology by Librarians and Teachers of the Na-
tional Poetry Association.

Ever Onward Rolls the Lumbee
Ever Onward Rolls the Lumbee …*
‘Tis a serpent long, winding sluggishly
Through dense labyrinths of vines
And lowland mosses …
Dark and treacherous
With black waters rolling onward …
Ever onward toward the sea,
Countless whirlpools whirling
Restless quicksands sucking,
Green water snakes breaking the water …
Appearing and disappearing in capers turbulent …
Black water bugs darting here and there,
Clare Johnson Marley Long trailing mosses streaming out
From the limbs of gnarled Cypress trees,
graduating from Flora Macdonald College, she began her 44- Lacy junipers and venerable water oaks
year teaching career in Lumber Bridge where she met her future Like an old man’s gray beard
husband. In 1917 she married Walter Ellis Marley, and they were In the frolicsome wind …
parents of Margaret Modlin, Rebecca Moore, Morris Stephens Marsh ducks feeding in the crab grasses
and Walter Ellis Marley, Jr. Along the water’s edge …
Wild geese flying southward,
She received her Master of Arts degree in Dramatic Art from Dark waters slapping the low banks,
University of North Carolina. Her love for playwriting came A crane standing on one foot
from her time with Dr. Frederick H. Koch, Founder and Director Sleeping in the fading sunshine …
of the Carolina Playmakers. Her love for plays led her to write Churning waters.
several plays based on North Carolina Historical events. Her Bull alligators fighting
works are persevered a n the Southern Historical Collection at Over the antiered stag
UNC. Several of her plays written while a student at UNC were Trapper and struggling in quicksands
produced by the Carolina Playmakers: Swamp Outlaw, about At the river’s edge.
the notorious “North Carolina Robin Hood,” Henry Berry Low- The musical chirping of birds …
ry; The Old Dram Tree, her first play of the Crusoe Island folk; Bluebirds, cardinals, sparrows and thrush …
Flora Macdonald, the highland girl who risked her life to save Foreboding hoots of an owl,
Bonnie Prince Charlie; Crusoe Islanders, a tragic drama of the Screaming of the wildcat
Carolina Low Country; The Wraith of Chimney Rock, a play in On the track of the prey,
verse, drawn from a legend, still cherished by the hill folk of the And the rushing of the wild boar
Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Through crackling sword grasses.
A crude raft of logs drifting down the river
Mary Slocumb, a play in poetic prose about the North Carolina Carrying two Croatans** sleeping
heroine of Moore’s Creek Battle between the Whigs and Tories, By wooden keys filled with moonshine***
was produced at Chapel Hill in the Twentieth Annual Festival, Taken from a still
1943. Swamp Outlaw was published in the Carolina Play-Book Hidden in the hollow of a giant oak
in March 1940; The Old Dram Tree was published in Edgar Al- And loaded by the light of the moon …
lan Poe’s Literary Messenger, in August 1942; Swamp Outlaw Alligators slide down slimy banks
was included in The Players Magazine, The Educational Theatre And follow the raft that rifts
in America, in May 1943. On black waters that roll onward
Through dismal swamps,
Marley twice won the Sidney Lanier Cup for Playwriting, in Sea marches green,
1943, for Flora Macdonald; and in 1944, for The Old Dram Tree. Black waters of the Lumbee River
Many colleges, high schools, clubs and festivals preformed her That move onward …
plays over the year. A citation of honor, The Roland Holt Silver Ever onward toward the sea.
Cup for Playwriting, was awarded Clare Johnson Marley at the
Carolina Playmakers Theatre by Professor Samuel Selden, Head Footnotes to the poem by Marley - *Lumbee River is a deep,
of the Department of Dramatic Art, University of North Caroli- winding and treacherous river in Robeson County, NC, **Cro-
na, for outstanding work in graduate playwriting while working atans are Indians located in Robeson County and said to be the
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