“Jesus will always be there. He’s waiting. It’s true.”
He wiped his forehead, crooned, began to sway:
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling you,
O, sinner, come home. Come start your life anew.
I’ll stand here as the organ gently plays.
Jesus will always be there. He’s waiting. It’s true.”
I squirmed and giggled on the furthest pew,
then jabbed my best friend, smirked. He wouldn’t play.
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling you.”
Too soft for me. I picked dirt off my shoe.
I drummed my fingers and watched my best friend pray.
“Jesus will always be there. He’s waiting. It’s true.”
Well, let him wait, I thought. He’s overdue.
We get home after kick-off every Sunday.
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling you.”
I prayed the preacher’d save a soul or two
so he’d shut up and let me go. He swayed.
Jesus is always there. He’s waiting. It’s true.
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling you.
“Gospel Villanelle” was originally published in Shenandoah, and has made appearances since in the review’s Buck and Wing: Southern Poetry at 2000 anthology as well as the Spring/Summer issue of 2003. The poetic form of the villanelle consists of five tercets (3 line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (4 lines). In all the poem has only two rhymes that make up the foundation for the rest, which in the above case are “true” at the end of line 1 and “sway” trailing in line 2. Hudgins’ poem describes a subject whose Sunday priorities, football and faith, are often at odds with one another. Employing the villanelle’s strict form draws attention to the narrator’s perception of the hindering requirements of the church.
Currently a member of the English faculty at Ohio State University, Hudgins received a B.A. in English and History from Huntingdon College, followed by an M.A. in English from the University of Alabama and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. He has published numerous books of poetry, including The Glass Hammer: A Southern Childhood, which earned him the Alabama Author Award.