Thursday, April 20, 2017

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)

2 comments:

Ornery Owl of Naughty Netherworld Press and Readers Roost said...

Great fun with words in these poems!

Vince Gotera said...

Bruce, love the anagram at the end. Great use of the tennis words. --Vince