THE FIRST POETRY PRIZE WINNER –
Winter 2021-2022
is Robert Wooten
of Durham, North Carolina – USA
“The Wind on Robert Lane”
By Robert Wooten
If I take care
and watch what I wear,
and if I don’t stare
through the purpose,
I suppose I shall mutter,
stagger and stutter,
through the streets of the Dream.
And what is my choice?
And how shall I respond
to a voice that calls me
to ponder, aside, the mundane thing
of daily life? with practices?
With one foot in one,
and the other . . . another,
how shall I spend the time?
writing, possessed, demented,
the realness of vision,
cemented to pain?
But what will I gain?
But what will I gain?
And do I have the right?
Thought on the dry wind
of reflection, I grapple
with perplexion,
while wading through
a dream-strewn street of pretension.
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About the poet:
Robert Wooten earned an MFA in poetry at the University of Alabama (1998) and an MA with a creative writing focus at North Carolina State University (1994). His poems have appeared in such places as The Southern Poetry Anthology, THEMA, Poem, Asheville Poetry Review, and The Pedestal Magazine. His second chapbook, Famous Last Words, was a finalist for a Bright Hill Press Poetry Chapbook Prize. He was the alternate and runner-up for a Guy Owen Award for Writing. He has won several best of issue recognitions.
