Bard Contest Winner
“Norman”
Norman, I sought you today
As I crossed once more
The vast free lands
Of Nevada—
Green this year
From an
adequate winter—
And crossing it all
In one easy day,
From the Humbolt Wells
In the East,
To the Sierra waters
Meadows of the Truckee
In the West.
Yes, Norman,
In a century-and-a-half
The way West
Hasn’t changed much—
We crossed the Bear
Just below Hamp ton’s Ford,
Following still
Hensley’s route west
North of the Salt Lake.
And then along the Humbolt
Toward the gold fields.
Was that, too, your route
With that heard of cattle—
And were there rustlers?
Were there poison berries?
Was your life taken—
Buried and un marked
In the Nevada desert?
Or were you too lured
By the beauty
To the wealth of California?
No, we, the children
Of Elias and Cynthia Bowen,
(Surely in the thousands now),
Have not forgotten you Uncle Norman—
The handsome but blind
Youngest son,
Miraculously healed
By God’s prophet,
Only to be lost,
A young prodigal?
And swallowed up mysteriously,
By the wild, Wild West.