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Poem Wins Prize in National Contest
Tuesday, December 04, 2001 3:48:00 PM
by Gene Williamson
| Poetry |
| Gene Williamson's poem, Yes He Is, wins prize in national contest sponsored by Virginia Adversaria magazine |
Virginia Adversaria has selected the Gene Williamson poem, Yes He is, as second place winner ($50) of the magazine's national 2001 poetry contest. The poem will be published in the issue available in late December. The contest received hundreds of submissions from 31 states. Said contest judge and Virginia Poet Laureate Joseph Awad, "I think the winning poems stand out in their artistry, their humanity, and most of all, their resourceful use of the language." Gene Williamson's winning poem appears below:
Yes He Is
He was a Maine lumberjack
felling dead trees in the woods behind
his house at the foot of Bank Street
He was Tailspin Tommy doing loopty- loops in his backyard swing
He was Buck Jones riding his trusty broom Silver
chasing cattle rustlers around
the vacant lot behind the corner post office
He was Tarzan swinging
on the limbs of the neighbor's fig tree
He was Tom Sawyer
whitewashing the old woodshed
and Huckleberry Finn dipping a fishing line
from a makeshift raft on Sunset Creek
He was Jack Dempsey boxing fifteen rounds
with his cousin Gene Tunney inside
a rope ring stretched from the whitewashed woodshed
to the trunk of a pecan tree and his dad's
old Packard rusting in the weeds
He was Douglas Fairbanks Junior flashing
his wooden sword as he leaped from the back porch
and somersaulted over his mother's bird bath
He was every daredevil gun-toting tobacco-chewing
swaggering smooth-talking danger-loving
white-hat hero and hombre he ever saw
on Saturday mornings slumped in a front row seat
at the Langley picture show
This protean lad emerged one day
from the southern sea a tall rangy man
that some folks said looked a little like James Bond
and even Gregory Peck
and Mitchum and Jimmy Stewart
and the inept actor making out between screams
with Fay Wray in King Kong
while others stopped him on the street and asked
are you somebody
©GW2001
Gene Williamson's latest book, The Olfactory Organ Recital and Other Poems, is available direct from the author at his AuthorsDen bookstore.
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