Author: Trella Hemmerly Haldeman Romine

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Trella Hemmerly – 1985-06-14

Friday, June 14, 1985
Marion Star “News of Other Years”
40 years ago
A Marion man, Raymond F. Romine, Was awarded first place by judges among Ohio entries for the 1944 Thanksgiving Association poetry contest. The poem “GI Joe”* was one of several hundred from Ohio.

* should be G.I. Thanksgiving

“What’s that?” he said, “You’ve sympathy for me?
Then keep it –I don’t need it . See that fellow
Four beds down? We were in the same engagement;
He’ll never see again. He was an artist, before,
Doing well. You know what he says?
He says he can still see sunsets , and hills of goldenrod ,
And stuff like that , in his mind’s eye, sort of;
And even if he can’t paint , he can still dictate
His impressions. So, he’s going to be a writer!
A WRITER? And he’s thankful just for that ,
Honestly thankful!
Me? I can learn again to write, and draw , and do things–
I’ve only lost my writing arm; I have another,
And BOTH EYES!
This is my twenty-first Thanksgiving; and the first one
I’ve ever been truly thankful for my blessings.
No , I don’t really need your sympathy,
But thanks anyway.”

And I have all my faculties:
How do I stack up with chaps like these?

(1st Prize, Ohio, NTA Contest, 1944)
Announced May 12, 1945