It’s easy to write about baseball
It’s not like football, four boundary lines
Ninety degree angles of absolute control
Gladiators fighting over an odd shaped ball
Or basketball, soccer or hockey
Again, all are confined to a rectangle
Chasing an object back and forth
Baseball is unique, it stands alone
Not confined to a box, there are the lines of
First and third which give definition
But are not the last word
It’s the outfield, with a different shape
And measure in each park, it’s not the end
You can leap and stretch over the wall
And steal a home run, or the ball can
Continue flight over the fence
And if it is lucky, out of sight lost in infinity
Maybe still traveling
Theoretically still in play
The rhythm, the space and pace
The absence of time
The whisper of eternity
I'm not much of a sports fan generally but I do appreciate the beauty of what you write about it--that opening out into all of possibility the place where a ball might land and until it lands, be borne long on air.
ReplyDelete"lines of / First and third ... give definition/ But are not the last word"
ReplyDeleteI like that a lot. Of course, I'm a basketball fan myself since we have the local Spurs basketball frenzy every season.
Baseball is seriously fun, too. You should read Faith Is a Radical Master by Walt McDonald. The title poem is about baseball and you can find it on his sample page.
I am an enormous Cubs fan and love baseball... your prose is terrific!! I especially love "Not confined to a box, there are the lines of First and third which give definition
ReplyDeleteBut are not the last word."
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