PAD Day 20: The Sports of Love and Poetry

Today’s prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) write a "task" poem, and (2) write a poem using the language or jargon of a particular sport. 

The obvious choice for me would be my favorite sport, baseball, but I’ve written a whole chapbook full of baseball poems. So today I’m writing about a different sport: romance.

Tennis, Anyone?

My task is to court you.
I’m serving you compliments
but you just lob them back.
This back-and-forth doesn’t seem
to net me anything so far.
Maybe I need more topspin.
We’re playing singles now,
not mixed doubles.
This game seems to go on
forever. You’re set in your ways,
and I seem no match for you.
What’s your racket?
I’m already past thirty, love,
but I’ll keep smashing away.
Maybe I’ll ace it,
maybe I ‘ll double-fault,
but you are worth the effort.
It should be no surprise
that “volley” is an anagram
for “lovely.”

And speaking of baseball, how about if I throw in a poem from that aforementioned chapbook?

Between Starts

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments.

The intervals are the tough things.
- Robert Frost

Four days rest is an eternity.

I worry about starting this next poem.

Do I still have my best stuff?

If I do, I can blow readers away

with a fastball-metaphor so clever

that all they can do is watch it

whiz by them and mumble, "Wow."

Other days, I'll struggle to get

anything across the plate.

Confidence is like a pitching arm -

when it's strong, you're unstoppable.

If it stiffens up, you can barely

hold a pen. But I'm not out to win

a Cy Young or a Pulitzer.  I'd be happy

just to win more than I lose.

(From Hits and Sacrifices, Copyright 2016, Finishing Line Press)