Congratulations to Ben Ahlrichs, whose poem "Abderus on Heracles" has been been selected as the winner of the The Iowa Review's David Hamilton Undergraduate Creative Writing Prize. This prize is sponsored by anonymous donors who wish to honor the mentorship and support that students at the University of Iowa received from Emeritus Professor of English David Hamilton. In addition to publication online, the award comes with a $500 scholarship. This year, we had a robust submissions pool of University of Iowa student writing to choose from, and we thank those faculty members who nominated student work for this annual award. Find the winning poem below.
Abderus on Heracles
I see him in the darks of trees upturned.
The milkblack dark like bear fur. Roots
tall like him standing. The branches: bluffing.
Paws fumbling salmon stumbling up the stream.
See him in the no-night nights. My moon-gone
sleep. That all-day light. See him in wild
flower. Hills alive and drenched and end
of July and everything dead. In wild carrot
in marble in mountain goat in fireweed in
porpoise mist. I fell for him like new growth.
When the flames came tender as spring meat,
as moss. He told me once that some seeds
only open to heat. After him, an opening. After
him, a lesson: Let the men you love stay myth.
Ben Ahlrichs is a senior at the University of Iowa studying English and creative writing.
