Tom GoffВ is an instructional assistant in the Reading and Writing Center at Folsom Lake College. Locks that last sonic chip your earsight seeks. Will catch none of the ecstatic blush on dark cheeks ItвЂ™s clear the daguerreotypeвЂ™s ungainly plate That snaps trees-snapвЂ™s a noise!-or flays the hillвЂ™s crest. Instinctively to speak wind-shear across heath Of unoiled gears the squawks crows make when pressed Shut, even as perked ears cup: the clashing teeth Your genius robbed of lifeвЂ™s relieving tedium,Д®ach closed eyelidвЂ™s an impassable postern gate Your sleepless keyboard-carillons toll your fate, Great WigginsвЂ™ ghost! Slave, yet master of your medium, The anguished cowardice, the Big Skedaddle.ДЄnd last of all, bone-rattling, one more blast Supplanting the bravado with the frantic, Objective correlative of the battle-shatter.ДЄt last, all tunes accelerate, ribald, antic,ДЄs terror whips the horse with empty saddle, Pound into goulash all remaining coherence, Prestissimo octaves, Lisztomania clatter Д¬ontending hands delve opposite keyboard ends, How, decades before Charles Ives could dream or find What psychic tremors vibrant in TomвЂ™s mindД®voke men fractioned by remorseless math? What white manвЂ™s riddled ghost can have suggested

Of Lees and Stonewalls, even perhaps of Grants?ДЇrom camp Tom leads we wade the fever swamp,Д¬ross flaming rivers: TomвЂ™s our psychopomp. Was crafting chords from ambient dissonance, Such as Tom Wiggins whose whole enterprise Greek Revivals built on the frames of slaves On colonnades (each column tallies one loss), Spanning Wilderness, Gettysburg, Malvern Hill,Д¬hancellorsville, synods of the devilвЂ™s kirk,Д«lasts back to front and front to back acrossДЇour years of cenotaphs, long architraves Had fitly depicted Blind Tom WigginsвЂ™ work, If only in one Battle-Piece Herman Melville Thinning the ranks that run to red disorder. Holed everywhere the cluster-blast scores hits Д®ach levels the railroad magnate with the tanner,ДЄs the mock-thunder-intervals come shorter, Now, the shredded flag Star-Spangled Banner, Storm routing the drummer, scattering all fifes. The nearer, nearer cannon-blast tone clusters,Д®xploding song as torn young corpses heap,Дischarged: as much from illusion as from life, Or is this the knell for uniform-frogged Zouaves?ДЄbrupt as the jerky start that snaps from sleep, Meet for sword-slashing, lathered-horse forays?

Next, fresh enigma: why the Marseillaise?ДЄ cavalrymanвЂ™s conceit, supposed quite suave, Of smoke is to becloud noon mock dusk, false dawn. Seems placed right about where the canopy Pamplona-like, this first Run of the BullДЄ stripped-down nocturne for the stripping-down Parade-ground victors open eye-wide lids. WeвЂ™ve heard from Yankees here come DixieвЂ™s kids, Of musket breath will shear those shako plumesДЄimed like cocked snooks at gallant batteries. NaГЇve cadets who still believe one breeze The drum tattoos turn distant blast on come Yes, here comes вЂњYankee Doodle,вЂќ prancing frieze-ДЇlat in elongated fife-line, tootling glum (composed by pianist Thomas Wiggins in 1863)Д«egins with bass clef cadences on вЂњdrum,вЂќ 2021 PRIZE FOR POETRY AWARD WINNING POEM вЂњBlind TomвЂ™sвЂќ Battle of Manassas This year we received some 1,350 poems from 41 states, Canada, Iceland, Japan and Mexico. The Prize is underwritten by Tor House Foundation Board member John Varady with additional support from Honorary Board Member Allen Mears and Board Member Lacy Buck. The annual Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry was established twenty-five years ago as a living memorial in honor of American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962). We are pleased to announce that the 2021 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry, an honorarium of $1,000, is awarded to: Tom GoffДЇor his poem вЂњBlind TomвЂ™sвЂќ Battle of Manassas Honorable Mentions, each with an honorarium of $200, are awarded to: Dannye Romine PowellДЇor his poem вЂњLeaving ManzanarвЂќ Pamela WaxДЇor her poem вЂњWalking the LabyrinthвЂќ Nicole WindhausenДЇor her poem вЂњOcotillo DreamsвЂќ Final judge for the 2021 Prize was poet Kim Stafford.

Mount and blade poems