Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Wednesday poetry break

In honor of my Baltimore Orioles defeating the evil New York Yankees in a hard fought game (11 innings) last night, here's a poem by May Swenson. Coincidentally, it was the one read by Garrison Keillor today on The Writer's Almanac.

Analysis of Baseball

It's about
the ball,
the bat,
and the mitt.
Ball hits
bat, or it
hits mitt.
Bat doesn't
hit ball, bat
meets it.
Ball bounces
off bat, flies
air, or thuds
ground (dud)
or it
fits mitt.

Bat waits
for ball
to mate.
Ball hates
to take bat's
bait. Ball
flirts, bat's
late, don't
keep the date.
Ball goes in
(thwack) to mitt,
and goes out
(thwack) back
to mitt.

Ball fits
mitt, but
not all
the time.
Sometimes
ball gets hit
(pow) when bat
meets it,
and sails
to a place
where mitt
has to quit
in disgrace.
That's about
the bases
loaded,
about 40,000
fans exploded.

It's about
the ball,
the bat,
the mitt,
the bases
and the fans.
It's done
on a diamond,
and for fun.
It's about
home, and it's
about run.

— May Swenson

5 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

I love it!

I could almost smell the hotdogs and taste the beer. Take me out to the ballgame...take me out to the crowd...

Thanks for this post, and anyone who defeats the NYY is a hero in my book. The same goes for whoever beats the Chicago Chumps. Yes, I typed that correctly, not Cub's but...C-H-U-M-P-S.

Anonymous said...

great poem, reminds me of when i am sitting in fenway with my friends enjoying a game.

thanks for beating up on the yanks, but hope the sox fare better against the orioles this weekend!

Sue J said...

Unfortunately, Donald, I don't think the sox are in any danger this weekend ....

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

i don't know, the sox have been playing like crap on the road, so you may be enjoying the weekend series much more than i!

Sue J said...

I will still be rooting for Manny to hit 500!