NIMROD

University of Tulsa, literary magazine, 1958

David Omer Bearden's earliest published work "I Wakened On A Plain In Gloom," appeared in NIMROD Fall 1958 Vol. 3 No. 1., when he was a freshmen English student attending the University of Tulsa. (NIMROD was published for a period by the local arts council but is now back under the sponsorship of Tulsa University till this day.)

I Wakened On A Plain In Gloom

I wakened on a plain in gloom
   and saw the moon-fog blazing o'er the ground
frightened-for I would know the sun, I grieved
   then sobbing I began to gaze around
to see the young trees wave their tinfoil leaves;
   then I knew darkness and night sound
   was a soft whisper of my doom.

There was a river in my youth,
   a drowsy river flowing down the plain
that surely would have puddled and then dried
   but a sad love aroused and sent the rain
that April woman rent her robe and cried
   and weeping started once again
   the stirring waters of the truth.

Then came the waving windblown rain
   that capped the waters with a dingy cream
I knew the swelling nights demented joy
   that tore the trees and made the river scream
I recalled terror I knew as a boy
   so frightening, but like a dream
   that never is so bright again.

* * *

Other contributors in this issue included:

John Tagliabue
Henry Birnbaum
James Boyer May
Nancy Munn
Louis Ginsberg
Judson Crews
Michael Raynolds
Ted Berrigan
Dan McRae
Carol Griffee
Kathryne Gambrell
Phillip Russell