The Doug Draime Prize for Poetry

A FLOWER FOR YOU

ON SAVAGE CREEK ROAD

for Lori

Mornings are the perfect time,

watching you place

flowers around the house

in tiny delicate vases

Oregon has done wonders for

you!

But let’s not call it

Oregon,

let’s call it Eden and dream

a bit.

The tulips still bloom fully

after four days.

And the scent of the dark blue

wild flower never fades

from the house

(Reprinted posthumously with permission of Carol and Aaron Draime)

DOUG DRAIME was referred to as A Poet’s Poet! He was a Poet, Short Story Writer, and Playwright. Author of sixteen collections of poetry. Born and raised in Vincennes, Indiana, Doug Draime’s first published works appeared in the 1960’s. His poems, short stories and plays continue to be published in a wide range of magazines, newspapers, collections, broadsides and on-line journals. Draime began writing as a teenager in Vincennes, then moved to Chicago where he studied philosophy and creative writing at Chicago University, and theater at the Fine Arts Academy. A wartime draftee, he served for two years in the US army infantry during the Vietnam War, becoming active in the anti-war movement when he moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1967 after his discharge. He studied film and anthropology at Los Angeles City College on the G.I. Bill, and briefly pursued a career as an actor before becoming an integral part of the Los Angeles literary community. In 1981 he re-located to Ashland, Oregon, working for the Ashland Unified School District as a Special Education Assistant until his retirement in 2005. He was a recipient of PEN grants, in 1987, 1991 and 1992. He leaves behind two sons, Aaron and Shawn Draime, while living in Oregon he met and married Carol Draime, and the two of them lived together in Ashland until his death in 2015. His poems will make you laugh, his poems will make you cry, and if you let them his poems can even help liberate you!

GUIDELINES (NOT RULES