Library of Congress Poetry: Seventh Inning Stretch

(I’m exploring poetry through images by tapping into the extensive collection of the Library of Congress on Flickr. There are some amazing images shared with the public and more coming every month or two, it seems. What can inspire you? Be sure to cite where you got the image from. Use Alan Levine’s Flickr Attribution tool and your life is a breeze.)


flickr photo shared by The Library of Congress with no copyright restriction (Flickr Commons)

Well, the game got called
on account of

the rain

and I’m still up next to bat,
so I’m impatient for

the pitch

So I don’t mind the mud
nor the empty seats nor

the rain

All I care about is
how far I’m gonna smack

that pitch

and win the game!

Process Note: There are lots of pretty cool baseball shots in the archives, but mostly of team shots or close-up head-shots. This one caught my attention. I was thinking of these men, waiting around. I don’t see rain but it made sense to have them stuck in a rain delay, seventh inning. That fellow leaning against the pole is thinking of playing baseball. I am sure of it. I wove in some inadvertent rhyme and decided to pull out the last line of each stanza as a way to show the rain and the pitch as important elements. Funny how you can do that with poetry.

Peace (in outfield),
Kevin

5 Comments
  1. Kevin,
    I like how you narrowed the emphasis by pulling out the key words and creating single lines. I also enjoyed looking at the image and thinking about what the men are doing, thinking, wondering…very cool!

    Here’s a Fib to go with:

    Waiting to Play Ball

    Start!
    Play ball!
    Rain delay…
    Restart-the pitch, STRike
    The pitch, the swing, connect! Home run!

  2. Kevin- I love reading your comments about process as much as I love the poems. I think your use of single lines works really well! The start and stop feeling is exactly how I feel when I go to Rockies games and there is a weather delay.

  3. Thought they were waiting for a bus to take them barnstorming. Reminds me of one of my favorite movies. See Hypothes.is annotations for the vid.

    antispam-yerout! dr bushel Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers for Dr. Bushel. Dr. Bushel pickled them. Yeah, history stands corrected.

  4. Waiting seems to be a running theme for you. Or maybe it’s me, waiting.

    the rain
    the pitch
    the rain
    we wait
    we pitch
    we rain

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