by HarryHill
Not sure what all the fuss about this is. Seems kind of f'd up. Preacher gets drunk and then goes to have sex with a member of congregation. Even if they were in love and he couldn't get the courage up to go to her. Honestly, ladies out there, I know I wouldn't have wanted my first time to be with someone drunk off his ass, no matter how much I loved him. Just my opinion.
use of language flip-flop between the devil and the devine, good story, good poetics, I assume the long lines are a formatting mistake,
"There's one more furrow to plow."
cracks me up, in '39 it would have been a cliche, and you had the good sense to put it in someone else's mouth.
I thought it would be a finalist when I first read it. It's musical and has a wonderful narrative. I think you have a talent for poetry. I don't know what those two really long lines are doing for the poem, but maybe it's a preference thing.