Line drives : 100 contemporary baseball poems / edited by Brooke Horvath and Tim Wiles ; with a foreword by Elinor Nauen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Horvath, Brooke.

Wiles, Tim, 1964-

Series:

Writing baseball

Writing baseball series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baseball--Poetry.

Baseball.

Baseball players.

Baseball players--Poetry.

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxxii, 207 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2002]

Summary:

"We wait for baseball all winter long," Bill Littlefield wrote in Boston Magazine a decade ago, "or rather, we remember it and anticipate it at the same time. We recreate what we have known and we imagine what we are going to do next. Maybe that's what poets do, too." Editors Brooke Horvath and Tim Wiles unite their own passion for baseball and poetry in this collection, Line Drives: 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems, providing a forum for ninety-two poets. These poems are fun, fresh, angry, nostalgic, meditative, and meant to be read aloud. They are keen on taking us deeply into baseball as sport and intent on offering countless metaphors for exploring history, religion, love, family, and self-identity. The poets speak of murder and ghost runners and old ball gloves, of baseball as a tie that binds families -- and indeed the nation -- together, of the game as a stage upon which no-nonsense grit and skill are routinely displayed, and of the delight experienced in being one amid a mindlessly happy crowd. This book is true to the game's long season and to the lives of those the game engages.

Contents:

The Origin and Purpose of Baseball / Richard Behm 3

Spring Fever / Paul Marion 5

Stealing Home / Joseph Stanton 6

Spring Training / Elinor Nauen 7

Little League Tryouts / David Watts 8

The Catch / Joseph Green 9

Baseball / J. Caitlin Oakes 10

The Player / Joyce Sidman 12

1947 / Joseph A. Soldati 13

The Retarded Children Play Baseball / Wesley McNair 15

Asked for a Happy Memory of Her Father, She Remembers Wrigley Field / Beth Ann Fennelly 17

Sweet Spot / Lindsay Knowlton 18

Something I Could Tell You about Love / Edwin Romond 20

To Fungo the Torn Ones / Craig Paulenich 21

The Baseball Boys of 1964 / Earl S. Braggs 23

It Ain't Over ... / Louise Grieco 27

Instant Out / M. L. Liebler 28

Baseball Fields Seen from the Air / Michael McFee 29

Cardinals in Spring / David Baker 30

Stop Action / Conrad Hilberry 34

How to Hit a Home Run / David Jauss 37

Blyleven's Fourth Shutout, June, 1985 / Maj Ragain 39

Baseball / Wyatt Prunty 40

Black Ink / John C. Pine 41

A Dream of Third Base / Peter Meinke 43

Glory / Yusef Komunyakaa 45

Aesthetics / Jay Rogoff 47

Ode to Apple Pie / Rebecca J. Finch 49

A Softball Game / Sheryl St. Germain 51

Listening to a Baseball Game / Baron Wormser 53

Singles / Michael Waters 54

Players / Thomas Michael McDade 56

Crowd at the Stadium / Rina Ferrarelli 58

In the Red Seats / Andrew Hudgins 59

Supernatural / David Baker 61

Minor League Rainout, Iowa / Mark J. Mitchell 63

Polish-American Night, Tiger Stadium / Jim Daniels 65

Biographical Note / Jeff Worley 67

Softball / Joseph Bathanti 68

Night Baseball, 1947 / Mary Kennan Herbert 70

A Baseball Game / Richard Brautigan 73

September Pears / David Starkey 74

The Gamer / Robert McDowell 75

Photo of a Minor League Baseball Team, ca. 1952 / Ron McFarland 76

Where Baseball's the Only Game in Town / Walt McDonald 77

Baseball Cards / Dan Quisenberry 78

Geronimo at Short / Constantine von Hoffman 80

Something about Certain Old Baseball Fields / Bill Meissner 82

Night Baseball in the American West / Joseph Duemer 83

Is Reality One or Many? / Laurence Goldstein 85

Southpaw / Tony Cosier 87

Returning to the Field / David Citino 88

The Big League / David Feela 90

Visiting My Boyhood Friend after His Stroke / Jay Meek 92

Hits / Doyle Wesley Walls 93

Isn't it pretty to think so? / David C. Ward 95

Catch / Robert Collins 96

Old Baseball Found under a Bush / Michael McFee 98

Everything But Everything / Jay Rogoff 99

Limited Power / Edward R. Ward 101

True Story / Kyle Lee Williams 105

Baseball Haiku / Ron Vazzano 106

Dreams Should Not Dog Great Center Fielders / Rodney Torreson 107

The Career of Lou Proctor / Gary Fincke 109

World Series, 1968, Southeast Asia / Dale Ritterbusch 113

Short History of a Baseball / Paul R. Haenel 116

Play by Play / Jim Daniels 119

My Father, on the Day He Died / Michelle Jones 121

Baseball in Ohio / Virginia Schaefer 123

Betting on the Muse / Charles Bukowski 125

Telephone Call / Gailmarie Pahmeier 128

Williams in Autumn / Robert Gibb 129

October Play / Hannah Wilson 131

Night Baseball / Michael Blumenthal 132

My Last Hit / Ed Markowski 134

Dream of a Hanging Curve / Norbert Krapf 135

America without Baseball / Philip Dacey 137

Tired of Loss and Sin / George Looney 140

Winter at the Ball Field / Donna J. Gelagotis Lee 144

World Series, Game 5 / Karen Zaborowski 147

Softball Dreams / Karen Kevorkian 148

Voices of the Sea / Floyd Skloot 150

Archives / Michael S. Harper 152

Poem for My Father / Quincy Troupe 154

If You Know Me at All / William Heyen 156

Final Play / Donna J. Gelagotis Lee 157

Why I Love Baseball / Ron McFarland 158

Line Drive Caught by the Grace of God / Linda Gregerson 160

Listening to the Ballgame / Robert Gibb 162

The Cure / Katherine Harer 164

A Dharma Talk by Johnny Roseboro, Boulder, Colorado, March 23, 1983 / Joel Lewis 166

Carolina League Old Timers Game / Red Shuttleworth 168

Pearly Babe / Mikhail Horowitz 170

Sweet / Carol J. Pierman 171

Question: If You Had Only 24 Hours to Live, What Would You Do? / Kathryn Dunn 173

Shall I Compare Thee to a Triple Play? / Keith Eisner 175

Solid Single / Caron Andregg 177

Looking for the Baseball / Richard Behm 178

Last Baseball Dream of the Season / Larry Zirlin 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0809324393

0809324407

OCLC:

47216390