Lebron James cramps up in game 1
Sports Saturday
So it took the heat to stop the Heat in the first game of the NBA playoffs. Miami appeared to be on the way to stealing game 1 in the San Antonio arena with a slight lead in the final quarter. But the game was being played in 90+ degree temperatures because the air conditioning had broken down, causing the best player on the planet to go down with leg cramps. After that, it was curtains for Miami, which is more dependent on a single player than the Spurs are.
Here’s an H.D. poem about heat, which you can apply to whichever team you are rooting for. An imagist poet who suffered from depression, H.D. may be praying for something to cut through her emotional state. Note how the heat saps the life out of fecund pears and grapes. Or perhaps this is a poem about the dark night of the soul and a prayer to the Holy Spirit—the breath of God—to intervene.
In our case, however, we can see it either as (1) a Spurs prayer to help them cut through the suffocating Heat defense which, until James went down, pressed up and blunted point guard Tony Parker, forcing 22 Spur turnovers; or (2) an unanswered prayer by Miami for the air conditioning to revive and plough through the thick air.
Take your pick.
Heat
By H. D.
O wind, rend open the heat,
cut apart the heat,
rend it to tatters.
Fruit cannot drop
through this thick air–
fruit cannot fall into heat
that presses up and blunts
the points of pears
and rounds the grapes.
Cut the heat–
plough through it,
turning it on either side
of your path.
