This week’s Poetry Friday offering is the result of three faculty lectures from my VCFA residency. Mary Quattlebaum’s lecture Creating A Dynamic Setting, Martine Leavitt’s The Novel in Verse and Sharon Darrow’s Poetry: A Messy Business. I’m not sure I’ve done them justice. Perhaps they’ll appreciate the effort just the same.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is on the Wild Rose Reader this week.
Driveway Basketball
by Jim Hill
Jackets off in October sun,
Tossed to the mossy lawn.
Been playing for a while,
We are good and sweaty.
Ball thuds a muted ring
With every dribble.
I make my move,
Shoulder down,
driving hard.
Randy flows with me.
A truck rumbles by.
I plant my foot,
Sliding in sandy-grit,
Rolling into the garage door.
Face first.
Springs flex, hinges
Reverberate.
Blood fills my mouth.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
gotta love vermont. you come back all charged up and challenged to take on all kinds of new things. great job.
So very true (about being charged up and challenged). Discovered I have an inner academic too. Who knew?
Thanks, David!
I like that ‘Randy flows with me/a truck rumbles by’. The poem is filled with action, until it stops so fast, without two points, but something else. Not what I would have predicted. Nice poem!
Ouch! Sounds like a passionate game.
I agree, Catherine — Ouch!
But Jim, you did a great job getting me into the game. I was right there with your character. Face first. Tasting blood.
Love what Mary Lee said…”Face first. Tasting blood!”
For Jan. 27th’s Poetry Friday, TeachingAuthors.com is in with a discussion about awards and a poem about (what else?) WINNING!
Thanks for hosting, Jim!