Poetry and Basketball
i have a few male friends who i think unflinchingly understand the flirtation of poetry and basketball.
at first, i watched a few games at our retreat one year. i noticed the tensions between men who were poets with basketballs in their hands, sometimes a collection of Frank O'Hara in the back pocket.
i watched a few ladies shoot here and there mostly between games; seeing them always provide a new context through which to see their poems ... yes, before reading them.
i love basketball. i follow NBA FanHouse on Twitter. well, also, NBA ... and the Denver Nuggets. Carmello Anthonly. Griffin Blake (what a shame about that knee injury! Clippers' luck) .. and a few other game outlets.
there are a few different layers of game rooted in poetry, don't you think? there's kinesthetic harmony. the body's movement as a chord perfectly on key -- a musical simile on which poetry, too, depends. the orchestration of movement/physical/ precision and intent/ spirit/ will result in the most expected way and the least: a battle waltz of bodies made ready for war, or which at least explode with the warring spirit in their long limbs.
the feeling you might have of struggling through a paragraph, bouncing off words like trees in a forest obstructing your path-- the forward and the point guard on fire for their corner of the court. it is really brutal dancing, this sport. it is only the same repreformance that fireworks, spectacular, are in place of the canons and battle shot they stand for ... the goal on the court is the same as the goal for a good line, a neat enjambment, an effective stanza break that lets the rest of the poem run free and unfettered to the paint ... the last line, the 3 pt shot.
and these men (and women ... you know i've seen 'love and basketball' a few times ...), kings, soldiers, knights, clutch of sage seekers - everyone, they make a more gentle battle now ... and to such battles we always lend our poetry. and the acrobatics of language. and the prowess of vowels -- the determinate wisdom of consonant dissonance. always.
at first, i watched a few games at our retreat one year. i noticed the tensions between men who were poets with basketballs in their hands, sometimes a collection of Frank O'Hara in the back pocket.
i watched a few ladies shoot here and there mostly between games; seeing them always provide a new context through which to see their poems ... yes, before reading them.
i love basketball. i follow NBA FanHouse on Twitter. well, also, NBA ... and the Denver Nuggets. Carmello Anthonly. Griffin Blake (what a shame about that knee injury! Clippers' luck) .. and a few other game outlets.
there are a few different layers of game rooted in poetry, don't you think? there's kinesthetic harmony. the body's movement as a chord perfectly on key -- a musical simile on which poetry, too, depends. the orchestration of movement/physical/ precision and intent/ spirit/ will result in the most expected way and the least: a battle waltz of bodies made ready for war, or which at least explode with the warring spirit in their long limbs.
the feeling you might have of struggling through a paragraph, bouncing off words like trees in a forest obstructing your path-- the forward and the point guard on fire for their corner of the court. it is really brutal dancing, this sport. it is only the same repreformance that fireworks, spectacular, are in place of the canons and battle shot they stand for ... the goal on the court is the same as the goal for a good line, a neat enjambment, an effective stanza break that lets the rest of the poem run free and unfettered to the paint ... the last line, the 3 pt shot.
and these men (and women ... you know i've seen 'love and basketball' a few times ...), kings, soldiers, knights, clutch of sage seekers - everyone, they make a more gentle battle now ... and to such battles we always lend our poetry. and the acrobatics of language. and the prowess of vowels -- the determinate wisdom of consonant dissonance. always.
posted by ruth-e at 3:41:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home