Tag Archives: Sports

The L. A. Rams and Chaucer’s Miller

Tuesday I’m experiencing déjà vu after seeing the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. When I was a teenager and just becoming interested in football, my beloved Minnesota Vikings were always encountering the Los Angeles Rams in playoff games. Then the Rams became the St. Louis Rams, but now they’re the Los Angeles Rams again, […]

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One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts

Federer and Nadal resumed their legendary rivalry in the Australian Open finals and played a match for the ages. They are both old in tennis terms and by all rights should have been surpassed by the next generation. Therefore Tennyson’s “Ulysses” seems the proper poem to acknowledge them.

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Marriage & Tennis, One and the Same

Maxine Kumin’s poem “Prothalamion” is at once a celebration of marriage and tennis. I share it today to honor Roger Federer, who continues to dazzle long past the expiration date for tennis players.

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Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali

The American poet Marianne Moore was drawn to Muhammad Ali, who died Friday. Moore wrote liner notes for an album of Ali’s spoken poetry in 1963. Her poem “The Octopus” shows why would have drawn her to the boxer.

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Robinson Ran Against Walls, Never Broke

A Ken Burns documentary on Jackie Robinson gives me an excuse to run this short, powerful Lucille Clifton poem honoring the player who broke baseball’s color line.

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Touching the Happy Isles One Last Time

Peyton Manning limped rather than sprinted across the finish line but he still was victorious in probably what was his last game. The words of Walter Savage Landor’s dying philosopher come to mind.

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Peyton: Old Age Hath Yet His Honor

Two narratives clash on Super Bowl Sunday: the return of the king vs. the aging king that must be overthrown. Is Peyton Manning Odysseus and the Panthers the suitors? Or is he the dragon who must yield to the next generation?

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The Real Victims of Deflategate

Two characters from “Hamlet” have been invoked in Tom Brady’s deflategate scandal. Can you guess which ones?

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The Miraculous Ride of Tom Brady

If they win the Super Bowl, Brady and Belichick will become as legendary in the sports world as that patriot of old, Paul Revere.

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