By GottaLaff
Ted Newman, a retired teacher and self-described "cowboy poet," musician, and former Army pilot, won an Associated Press contest for writing a poem about Barack Obama's inauguration:
[He] is one of 10 people the AP selected nationally - and the only Westerner - from a contest the news organization was running for poems [...]IMHO, he already has.Unlike some of the other winning poems, Newman admits his is a bit irreverent and sardonic - an approach he says he takes in his poems and songs that involve politics and political correctness.
"I call it an 'accusatory poem,' " said Newman, a retired middle school social studies and science who has written more than 500 poems and songs that he calls "no hitters because they don't get any attention."
But his inauguration poem, entitled "Plea to the Pres" did get AP's attention from hundreds of entries in its "Ode to Obama" competition. [...]
The AP calls the 10 winners "an eclectic assortment of American wordsmiths" that includes a former poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner."
Their entries are equally varied in tone and subject matter, and Newman's may be the most acerbic.
A National Guard helicopter pilot for 20 years, Newman's poem asks Obama to "be the president our country needs" and levels his accusatory pen against some of the nation's ills.
He ends by saying, "Let's really rearrange the political hypocrisy; keep your word and bring change."
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