2012 NL East Prediction Haiku
by Stuart Shea
ATLANTA BRAVES
So many moons past…
The spring of Chipper gives way
To rust and pallor
MIAMI MARLINS
New house and new name
Young folks up til all hours
The Blizzard of Ozz
NEW YORK METS
They built this Citi.
Now they have to live in it
Short fences or not
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
At the keystone sack
Nothing but questions surface
In this pennant Chase
WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Message from the East—
“Beware high expectations”
Tapped out in Morse code
Baseball Cards #2
by Jim Daniels
Got `em got `em got `em
don`t got `em
Got `em got`em
don`t got `em
The clear flick of the cards
as I flip through Doug’s doubles
cuts thick August heat, summer, 1968
in the dusty field behind his house.
Look what I found, you guys.
His little brother Matt shows us
A magazine called Swank
wrinkled up and dirty.
Nothing like that
in our rubber-banded stacks.
We make a deal with Matt
and he flips through our doubles
Got `em got `em don`t got `em
as we silently turn the worn pages
and our mouths get dry.
Jim Daniels is the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has taught creative writing for 30 years.
Mariners/Athletics in Tokyo
by Stephen Jones
How hollow it seems
that the opening game
of the season was in Japan
The market deemed,
baseball explained,
it’s now international pastime
Yes, “changing times”
& “good for the game”
are the general conclusion
However the explanation
what’s missed is tradition
opening day at home field
(It’s a) Spring Thing
by Hilary Barta
Take the bats and the balls and the batters
Add the catcalls and hall-of-fame statters
Then the scouting reports
That drown out other sports –
It’s the national pastime that matters
For the best in limericks, discerning doggerelists always insist on Hilary Barta’s poems at LimerWrecks.
NOT Quite Haiku for Spring Training
by Jay Kenny
With apologies to Basho
Crowd files into seats
. infield dragged
. Ump cries “Play ball!”
. Frog plops into
. centerfield pond
