Lebron James is not the king but the sidekick, not Michael Jordan but Scottie Pippen. In literary terms, he is not King Odysseus but Prince Telemachus. His teammate Dwyane Wade is the king of the franchise.
Tag Archives: Sports
I Must Down to the Seas Again
I can imagine my student sailor liking John Masefield’s “Sea Fever.” She knows what it’s like to give oneself over to “the gull’s way and the whale’s way” and how the wind can feel like a whetted knife.
Bulls vs. Heat, a Homeric Battle
I designate the Miami Heat as the Greeks in Homer’s Iliad. After all, they represent a kind of dream team, kings from different city states coming together to seek glory. The Bulls are like the Trojans in that they have only one top-tier fighter. Derrick Bell is their Hector.
Chicago’s Roman de la Rose
What’s in a name? Would Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose by any other name smell as sweet?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Basketball, Derrick Rose, Gertrude Stein, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Derby Day: We Galloped All Three
It’s Derby Day so here’s a horse racing poem with galloping anapests (three-beat poetic feet, unstressed, unstressed, stressed). Unfortunately, two of the horses don’t make it to the finish line. At least the third horse is suitably rewarded. This 1834 Robert Browning poem is not based on an actual event, but it’s a lot of fun.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent", Horse racing, Robert Browning Comments closed
Memories of My Son, the Baseball Player
I hope I may be excused for revisiting a poem I have posted on before, along with some of my previous observations about it. It is a sports poem that brings to mind my oldest son, who died 11 years ago on this day. Dabney Stuart’s “Ties” is out of season—it’s about football—and Justin’s sport was baseball. Nevertheless I feel awash in sadness and sweet memory when I read it.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ties", Baseball, Dabney Stuart, death of a child, Football Comments closed
Before Michael There Was No GAME
By capturing a player as unpredictable as Michael Jordan within a verse form as rigidly formatted as a sestina, poet Jay Spoon makes it appear that “his airness” operated to the dictates of a higher law. Within the rigid confines of the boundaries of the court and working to deposit a round rubber ball within a small metal rim 12 feet above the floor, Jordan made magic happen.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Sestina for Michael Jordan", Basketball, Jay Spoon, Michael Jordan Comments closed
