A Poetic Game of Throw and Catch

Norman Rockwell, "Choosin' Up"

Sports Saturday

Some of my fondest memories are of playing throw and catch with my kids when they were growing up. Here’s a Robert Francis poem where he takes throw and catch and compares it to a poet collaborating with a reader.  The ball in this case is a poem.

Just as one can do all kinds of things with a ball, one can do all kinds of things with poetry. One doesn’t even need to be coached.  Baseball camps and poetry classes may increase one’s facility, but playing with a ball and playing with words are activities that come naturally to humans. Sometimes a poem’s meaning, like a ball, is delivered plump into your hands and sometimes you have to scramble for it. Either way, you can have fun.

Catch

By Robert Francis

Two boys uncoached are tossing a poem together,
Overhand, underhand, backhand, sleight of hand, everyhand,
Teasing with attitudes, latitudes, interludes, altitudes,
High, make him fly off the ground for it, low, make him stoop,
Make him scoop it up, make him as-almost-as possible miss it,
Fast, let him sting from it, now, now fool him slowly,
Anything, everything tricky, risky, nonchalant,
Anything under the sun to outwit the prosy,
Over the tree and the long sweet cadence down,
Over his head, make him scramble to pick up the meaning,
And now, like a posy, a pretty one plump in his hands.

 

Previous Robert Francis post:

Pitchers and Poets Avoid the Obvious

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