A lifelong Ames resident captured the natural beauty of Iowa in a collection of verses, which may become the official state poem at the hands of the legislature.With a love for poetry inspired by an English professor from Iowa State, 83-year-old Don Whattoff of Ames wrote “Iowa” in the early 1990s. Rep. Teresa Garman, R-Ames, proposed a resolution to the House when the legislative session began Jan. 8 to make the poem the official poem of Iowa.”I’m a native of Iowa, and I was born and raised right here in Ames,” Whattoff said. “I have a lot of respect for Iowa.”Garman said the poem, which describes Iowa’s “gentle rolling prairies,” “wooded slopes and streams” and “lush and blooming meadows,” reflects Whattoff’s passion for the state he calls home.”I think it indicates a love of the state, which I hope we all have,” she said. “I’ve had many people come to me who have read that poem who have said it really indicates a good feeling about the state.”James Berg, ISU professor of English, said the poem could help unite the state.”As a critic, I understand that a story is a great way of bringing people together, provided that everyone in the community sees the story as his or her own,” he said. “If it appeals to you as your story in some way, either symbolically or literally, it’s a way of sharing something. This [poem] seems to tell a story. The question is whether it tells everyone’s story.”Whattoff attended Iowa State College for one year in 1936. His love of poetry began after an English professor, Miss Cooper, told Whattoff he should try writing it.”She told me I had a good sense of rhythm and rhyme,” he said. “I’ve written about 60 poems over the years, and I just finished a couple of them, all in the last year or two.”Whattoff was forced to leave college for the workforce in the midst of the Depression. When the country’s finances stabilized in the early 1940s, Whattoff decided he wanted to become a federal special agent, and headed for Washington, D.C.”I needed a law degree for that, so I went to law classes at night and worked for the FBI with fingerprints during the day,” he said. “Then, the war came along, and I had to go.”While sailing the Pacific as a Merchant Marine, the ship he was on sprung a leak, he said. The ship docked in Seattle for repairs, and his wife, Clara, who was living in southern California, drove up to stay with him while he was in the States.”We were both there when the Japanese surrendered, and the war ended,” Whattoff said. “We kind of liked it in Seattle, but we thought, well, we better go back to Iowa. So, we bought a cheap car for $200 and came home — it was the best trip I’ve ever had.”The young couple moved back to Ames and has lived here since 1945, he said.Inspiration for his poetry usually hits him in the middle of the night, Whattoff said. However, he said love for his home state was the only inspiration he needed to write “Iowa.””What usually happens to me is I wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning with something buzzing in my head,” he said. “I don’t think I should judge my own work, but I think [the poem] represents Iowa well. I think it’s the best land in the world.”