When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
...
Tell you what I like the best --
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, -- some afternoon
...
For I can snore like a bullhorn
or play loud music
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only sink deeper
...
Watching baseball, sitting in the sun, eating popcorn,
reading Ezra Pound,
and wishing that Juan Marichal would hit a hole right through the
Anglo-Saxon tradition in the first Canto
...
they found him walking along the freeway
all red in
front
he had taken a rusty tin can
...
Fanaticism?No.Writing is exciting
and baseball is like writing.
You can never tell with either
how it will go
...
A BEST FRIEND-Makes a lunch trade with you even if he doesn't love peanut butter and jelly.
A BEST FRIEND-Notices you standing alone by the fence and invites you to play hockey with the rest of the class.
A BEST FRIEND-Chooses you to go camping with him each summer.
A BEST FRIEND-Puts chalk in the teacher's eraser so you're not the only
...
Lady, the dog that looks like a rat
Chases a beautiful Persian cat
She puts in high gear
Running like a deer
...
The burden of hard hitting. Slug away
Like Honus Wagner or like Tyrus Cobb.
Else fandom shouteth: "Who said you could play?
Back to the jasper league, you minor slob!"
...
"Don't overdo it," Dad yelled, watching me
Play shortstop, collect stamps and shells,
Roll on the grass laughing until I peed my pants.
"Screw him," I said, and grabbed every cowry
...
each day mowed
and mowed his lawn, his dry quarter acre,
the machine slicing a wisp
from each blade's tip. Dust storms rose
...
These are the saddest of possible words:
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
Trio of Bear-cubs, fleeter than birds,
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
...
The game was tied in the bottom of nine
A runner on third and two out
In the dead still air a mosquito's whine
Was all you could hear, then a shout
...
I am leading a quiet life
in Mike’s Place every day
watching the champs
of the Dante Billiard Parlor
...
One hot summer day
At the carnival
I saw the teenage boy
Who had a big crush
...
Thank You Mom-for holding me in your loving arms every time I cried.
Thank You Mom-for changing my diaper and singing me to sleep.
Thank You Mom-for holding my hand as you walked me onto the bus my first day of school.
Thank You Mom-for trudging through the snow each winter to watch me perform in the school play.
...
What does a hangman think about
When he goes home at night from work?
When he sits down with his wife and
Children for a cup of coffee and a
...
You have the grit and the guts, I know;
You are ready to answer blow for blow
You are virile, combative, stubborn, hard,
But your honor ends with your own back-yard;
...
...
my memory's screen door opens to the stars;
there's my Grandfather in the yard
gazing up at the constellations
...
Dear Parley,
I know I only met you once,
yet I feel I know you quite well,
...
(THIS DID NOT HAPPEN TO ME.BUT TO SOMEONE I KNOW)
I throw the glass against the wall; it shatters,
...
Bats can hit a baseball.
Girls can bat their eyes.
But the bats I want to talk about
fly with radar in the skies.
...
'TWAS a balmy summer evening, and a goodly crowd was there,
Which well-nigh filled Joe's barroom, on the corner of the square;
...
I dreamed Ted Williams
leaning at night
against the Eiffel Tower, weeping.
...
My tree will know it all
The tree of my childhood
With the endless branches
And the many whispers
...
I was miserable, of course, for I was seventeen
and so I swung into action and wrote a poem
and it was miserable, for that was how I thought
...
My best friend had lots of curls
but wasn’t like the other girls
who stayed dressed up and always clean.
My best friend wore old blue jeans.
...
- *INDIANAPOLIS* (INDIANA) -
From a land of standing timber
Fields of cane.. that grew so tall
...
Plurality is all. I walk among the restaurants,
the theatres, the grocery stores; I ride the cars
...
He never asked to be a hero
For him, playing ball would be just fine
Potentially his chance was less than zero
To overcome that black-white racist line
...
Homeless Santas sing in gutters
Roasting Christmas cards in garbage cans
And teenage moms play helping elves
To score Jack frost in twenty Grams
...
Through a concrete gate opening
the green field revealed itself.
I remember the white lines too.
Organ music smells hotdog smiles.
...
I remember
The good old days
Children playing in the park
Them dancing singing such joy
...
When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
—de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore—
that I've cherished and stared at for years,
...
A perfectly maneuvered military operation
executed with brilliant precision, hubby
helped Tiaan to make a paper cylinder
Nici did the cutting, prepared print-outs
...
Muggy today, a
pop of the mitt, a whiff of
the grass, swish of the
bat in the April air,
...
just flew inside my chest. Some
days it lights inside my brain,
but today it's in my bonehouse,
rattling ribs like a birdcage.
...
I
If not for my father...
Would I have learned
...
I've won numerous batting titles
and 'MVP' rings,
by baseball standards
I've accomplished everything,
...
The banker and his wife rejoiced. Their son was born.
As happened at first with boys, blue was the color most often worn …..
by their dear son, Quentin. They doted on him so,
planning for his future. To which college would he go?
...
The old man sat,
Ever so patiently
Touching the computer
Keyboard, then
...
You were there for me
When internet
Wasn't yet found
For them to surf
...
Agriculture and Industry
Embraced in public on a wall—
Heroes in shirt-sleeves! Next to them
...
'Twas back in the '80's, yet still plain as day
First Holy Communion - the month it was May,
The day before Sunday and time to give prayers
The priest in his study, the boys in their chairs,
...
My disability
Is a very
Real thing,
My dear friend,
...
She sits in her local coffee house cafe
Pining over an overdue cell phone bill.
She has seemed to have reached her limit
With her boyfriends unpaid portion still.
...
This list will be updated from time to time. The most recent items will be at the bottom of the list. (Last update 12 December 2023)
Poems that have won prizes or recognition:
...
I'd say late middle aged
and ready to retire
well almost soon enough
...
I Know You’re Angry
I Know It Hurts
I Know You Don’t Want To Hear …
It Could Be Worse
...
As I lay face-up upon my bed, strange thoughts roared inside my head.
The ceiling light’s cover seemed like a pearl, causing my synapses to swiftly swirl.
Was I really in a house, pray tell? Or was I encased in a huge oyster shell?
Was I a man such as you might greet, or was I a great big hunk of oyster meat?
...
The body of the lingerneedle is filled
with hemolymph unconstricted except
for a single dorsal vessel. A ventral
diaphragm bathes the organs of the head,
...
As I lay face-up upon my bed, strange thoughts roared inside my head.
The ceiling light's cover seemed like a pearl, causing my synapses to swiftly swirl.
Was I really in a house, pray tell? Or was I encased in a huge oyster shell?
Was I a man such as you might greet, or was I a great big hunk of oyster meat?
...
any man can be a father
but! not every man can be a dad.
(which is sad)
...
I visited my old home town
this week and stayed in the old
house where I grew up.
...
Scatter to the four winds
What relatives do when the subject of religion and politics comes up at thanksgiving dinner.
...
I.
Now I have seen everything.
The wake is going on right now from two to four
And it’s a quarter to three
...
The flowers in a still life painting never move
The phonograph needle on a record album never leaves the same groove
But in another town in another place
Another child is born to the human race
...
With not much action in my life, I strive to stretch my brain, OR..
at least exercise myself mentally to not lose what I've had BEFORE.
Some may say to me: 'Bri, what you 'had before' wasn't very much.'
Of course I attempt to NOT pay attention to THAT silliness and such!
...
She is at ease with her self
tugs at her bra strap unconsciously
looks at your mouth when you talk
stands on tip-toe to make her points
...
As I was taking a shower today,
a story came to me,
about how I could become Spider Prey,
and nevermore be free.
...
He's bubble gum in a baseball hat,
A dirty face with a mangy cat,
And if you can imagine that -
Then I guess you know my boy;
...
May you share with Kyle
Your sense of humour
Teaching him to be happy
Whenever he's a little sad
...
I won't be at the game on Saturday,
Charlie told me.
Why not? We need you!
...
This is not a poem.
I love the game of baseball, and stories related to the game.
...
I've struck out in baseball.
I've struck out in love.I've struck out in the game of life.
I've made a few mistakes in my life.
A life of wonder.
...
How people flocked to see him pitch.
He was tall and lanky, fidgety, a Detroit Tiger was known as the ‘Bird’.
How sorely he will be missed.
He was often described as eccentric, crazy, de-de-de and in fact weird.
...
A Lion roared in the known University of simplicity,
Wizard of words and their deeds in the name of scholar profound,
A Hero of pep talks with his knowledge on topics of multiplicity...
A speaker of personality was found in our ground!
...
As I'm putting your laundry away
I stop to look around your room.
The hundreds of Hotwheels
parked, as they should be, in their crate.
...
What happened if you lived just one step ahead,
Would you be better off alive or dead?
Knowing what you know now,
...
Suburban streets filled with baseball hats
People living in suburban flats
Cobweb shops filled with queues
People rushing round wearing out shoes
...
There comes a time in every man's life
when he thinks: I have never had a single
original thought in my life
including this one & therefore I shall
...
I only heard my grandma swear
when she was playing Rook.
If someone trumped her number one,
then that was all it took.
...
When we talk about movies
i like comedies, dramas, westerns,
adventures, sci-fi, animations
...
I've
practiced
not
kissing
...
On a baseball team
after 45 years —
not even baseball, really,
its handicapped cousin,
...
Was the same dull nite
All over agin.
Comforter cozy.
Ice cream gone.
...
As ghosts and ghouls descend on the U.S.,
I offer a November Showcase, nothing less.
[I was referring to our Halloween festivities,
which (witch?) are not among ALL Americans'..............proclivities.]
...
(This is a work in progress and will be updated from time to time.)
[Last update 12 December 2023]
ASPS = Arizona State Poetry Society contests
...
(limerick) And Not Only That #1 by Wes Vogler
Fish (Senryu Series)Kelly Kurt
...
A reply to aficionados of other sports who ask,
'How can you like baseball? '
Baseball is a Duke's game in July
...
I have never known a woman
in the biblical sense
and probably never will.
...
the future ain't what it used to be,
it seems like the past coming back again,
like an open book, a dime store novel, a new mistake.
the Dodgers are leaving Brooklyn, O'Malley said,
...
Writers of baseball, attention!
When you're again on the job-
When, in your rage for invention,
You with the language play hob-
...
Love, what is it
Now days love
Is like the game baseball
You play it to get to first base
...
Baudelaire was
driving a Model A
across Galilee.
He picked up a
...
You know the joy
of scanning radio stations
while driving a vast,
uninhabited area at night,
...
For she grew up in Kansas
An American for real
She loved baseball, God and country
And McDonalds for a meal.
...
It was a cool, overcast and windy Sunday afternoon in March 2014. We were about 50 miles from Paris, at my Grandmère's (grandmother's) farm. She lives in Paris, but she owns a Château and surrounding 1,100-hectare farm that she calls her 'fall retreat.'
Between three and five hundred people work on the farm, the Château and its surrounding shops (some work is seasonal) . The shops sell wool, cheese, wine and ice cream produced on the farm, as well as touristy things. Many of the employees live on the farm, rent free. Their homes, owned by the farm, form a hameau (village) . I didn't understand much of this at the time, I was 10 years old.
...
Young Bert and Kent were baseball nuts
and played it all the time.
They were, of course, quite good at it,
since each was in his prime.
...
I imagine my life as a city
somewhere in the third world, or the second.
And I want to be a tourist
in the city of my life.
...
Barry career as professional baseball player is over.
Barry will never see the Baseball Hall of Fame,
Barry whose greatest accomplishment will be void,
Barry struck out at the game.
...
The rain came down, upon my roof,
working it's way through tiny grooves.
It came through the tile, and the sheetrock,
On top of my tv, kerplock, kerplock.
...
I’ve started a 'showcase' on my PoemHunter site,
which is NOT a contest; it’s no arena for a fight,
but instead a place where once a month I shall post..
a poem* from you, a PH member, which you’d like read most.
...
The banker and his wife rejoiced. Their son was born.
As happened at first with boys, blue was the color most often worn …..
by their dear son, Quentin. They doted on him so,
planning for his future. To which college would he go?
...
I cannot tell you what's become
Of my lovers, lost to yesterday
Like those old collected baseball cards,
...