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Huckleberries: A few more things about The Bard of Sherman Avenue
Mayor Steve Widmyer was amazed that Huckleberries was able to keep the lid on the identity of The Bard of Sherman Avenue since his little rhymes first appeared in print in May 2002.
“You can’t keep a secret like that in this town,” Widmyer told me Feb. 20 at Blogfest 2016.
As many of you know, I revealed the identity of the master of the mini-rhymes at Blogfest, the annual celebration of the Feb. 16, 2004, birth of my Huckleberries Online blog.
Tom Wobker, formerly of the Pennaluna & Co. brokerage in downtown Coeur d’Alene, took his overdue public bow.
SReporter Scott Maben told you about The Bard in a feature story last Sunday. Scott didn’t mention that Wobker thought people would be disappointed when they found out he wasn’t someone important, like Duane Hagadone or Hagadone’s partner, Jerry Jaeger.
Judging from the warm applause Tom received at Blogfest, I don’t think people were disappointed at all.
Surprised brother
Among those who were startled by The Great Bard Reveal was David Wobker, Tom’s brother – so surprised that he penned a poem about the revelation: “There was an anonymous poet/With talent and willing to show it/He didn’t want fame/So it went without name/And even his brother didn’t know it.” The (rhyming) force is strong in that family.
In the early days of connection between The Bard and my print columns (Huckleberries and Hot Potatoes, the one I wrote while I was a member of the Editorial Board), I fielded dozens of guesses re: The Bard’s identity. Some of the best guesses were: the late attorney Scott Reed, Todd Hudson of Hudson’s Hamburgers, City Attorney Mike Gridley, Tom Robb of the Iron Horse, former Coeur d’Alene Mayor Don Johnston and former chamber manager Sandy Emerson.
No one ever guessed that it was Tom Wobker.
Huckleberries
To date, I’ve included 610 poems from The Bard of Sherman Avenue in my columns – 515 in Huckleberries and 95 in Hot Potatoes. He’s written dozens more that appeared only in my Huckleberries blog.
The first Bard poem in the print version of Huckleberries was published on May 20, 2002, criticizing the North Idaho Board of Trustees for eliminating five sports from the college’s athletic program, including baseball: “To reign is pleasant as can be/In our fair realm at NIC/Where we proclaim from regal throne/Which sports shall prosper as our own./If nothing else, we know one thing:/It’s very good to be the king.”
Tod Marshall, the Gonzaga University English professor and Washington state poet laureate, is working with Tom to produce a collection of his poems. The Bard’s many fans in the Huckleberries blogosphere have clamored for his rhymes for years. Meanwhile, I plan to collect every poem from the SR files that Tom has written. I’d like to compile 365 of them into a “Bard A Day” calendar for his fans. But that’s probably a chore best left for my future retirement.
It would be hard to pick a personal favorite from all the poems I’ve read of The Bard’s. But “November Ritual” comes close: “This month turkeys/are selected:/some get stuffed and/some elected.”
Parting shot
I want to leave you with a poem that expresses Tom’s appreciation for his readers: “My thanks to you who pause sometimes/to look upon these little rhymes,/for words just lie there cold and dead/until they are by others read,/and so it is that you’re my pard:/without you here, there’d be no Bard.”