Judson Mitcham

Judson Mitcham Poems

Judson Mitcham Biography

Judson Mitcham (born 1948) is an author and professor best known as being the only writer to win the Townsend Prize for Fiction twice. His poetry is featured regularly in publications such as Harpers, The Chattahooche Review, and The Georgia Review, and his books have earned considerable critical acclaim. His most well known book is The Sweet Everlasting. In 2004 the University of Georgia press published his book Sabbath Creek.)

The Best Poem Of Judson Mitcham

Writing

But prayer was not enough, after all, for my father.
His last two brothers died five weeks apart.
He couldn't get to sleep, had no appetite, sat
staring. Though he prayed,
he could find no peace until he tried
to write about his brothers, tell a story
for each one: Perry's long travail
with the steamfitters' union, which he worked for;
and Harvey—here the handwriting changes,
he bears down—Harvey loved his children.

I discovered those few sheets of paper
as I looked through my father's old Bible
on the morning of his funeral. The others
in the family had seen them long ago;
they had all known the story,
and they told me I had not, most probably, because
I am a writer,
and my father was embarrassed by his effort. Yet
who has seen him as I can: risen

in the middle of the night, bending over
the paper, working close
to the heart of all greatness, he is so lost.

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