Baseball Poetry

Dedicated to the writing of those invited to participate in a baseball poetry project. Those invited were asked to 1) go to a baseball game, any game and 2) create a poem, in any shape or form about that particular game or some memory of baseball, for the purpose of developing a collection. Most baseball poetry collections are ones culled from the works of famous poets; this one is designed to be more democratic, inviting some established poets and others moved to write baseball poems.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Letter to Richard Hugo from Washington, D.C.

Mark VanPutten

Letter to Richard Hugo from Washington, D.C.

– for David Schaafsma

Dear Dick:

Though we met only once,

The intimacy of your letter-poems

Emboldens me to address you so.

Though hung over, you and Ripley were so very kind

That Sunday morning thirty years ago

When I showed up, uninvited, at your home in Missoula.

We sat in your backyard drinking iced tea talking of baseball and poetry,

Laughing about Seattle’s new team and Ray Oyler’s strange trek

From the Tigers to the Pilots to the Safeway loading dock.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem funny any more

Now that Denny McClain’s serving Slurpees after hard time for mail fraud,

Mickey Lolich sold his donut shop to do time on baseball fantasy cruises,

And the emptiness between Hughes and Jarrell on Borders’ shelves

Where once your books stood.

The only joke my new town triggers

Are the eleven-dollar crabcakes at the ballpark

And arguments over parking and concession revenues.

Seriously, I miss the clarity of your voice from Montana

And the honesty of the obstructed view seats in the old Tiger Stadium.

Fondly, Mark


posted by David Schaafsma @ 2:11 PM  

1 Comments:

  • At 3:42 PM, Blogger David Schaafsma said…

    I love this poem, and thank you for writing it. I have a
    couple things that occurred to me about it:

    I love the letter format for writing to him, of course. Follows Hugo, as we know.

    These are the only nits I have (today; I may read again and a have more to say later, too:

    You may not need "Now that" to open line 12

    It's Denny McLain!

    And the third example of sad facts doesn't quite seem parallel, since the
    other involve verbs. Tara wasn't sure about that, but thought line 15
    could go, was implied. I wasn't sure about THAT. I feel that third Hugo
    on the shelves piece needs to be rewritten like "The place between Hughes
    and Jarrell at Borders stands empty"

    I think in line 19 you may not need "seriously" to open the line. We
    already know the gist of the letter/poem is serious (though true, you had
    been telling sad jokes about Lolich and McLain. . )
    Tara may disagree with me, just to say.

    I love the poem. Maybe more later, but it is a keeper, clearly. Thanks
    for doing it.

    d

     

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