Sports

Dive into this sports-themed collection and you’ll quickly become a fan, as our poets relive their glory days and share their love of the game. Whether you’re a competitive athlete, a dedicated amateur, or an armchair quarterback, we invite you to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat—it’s all here between these pages. On your mark, get set. Go!

Contributing Poets from Around the Globe:

Alan Catlin • Alan Robert Proctor • Amie Sharp • Amy Miller • Anne Harding Woodworth • Barbara A Meier • Bill Cushing • Bill Frayer • Brigitte Goetze • Brittney Corrigan • Carolyn Dahl • Carolyn Martin • Charles Halsted • Christopher Scribner • Claire J. Baker • D.R. James • David E. Matthews • Devon Balwit • Diane Averill • Diane de Echeandia • Don Thompson • Donna Prinzmetal • Dwayne Brenna • Emily Waters Shearer • Eric Forsbergh • Gina Forberg • Gretchen Fletcher • Hannah Jane Weber • Jacob Miller • Jamie Brian • Jan Haag • Jeffrey Hantover • John Herold • Joseph Ridgway • Joshua Plack • Joy McDowell • Judith Terzi • Karen Poppy • Karla Linn Merrifield • Kris Demien • Linda Neal Reising • Livia Meneghin • M.G. Stephens • Marc Meierkort • Margaret Chula • Margaret DeRitter • Margaret R. Sáraco • Margaret Van Every • Marjorie Moorhead • Matthew Harrison • Michael Estabrook • Michael Fedo • Naila Claudia Schulte • Neil Creighton • Nils Nelson • Patrick Swaney • Paul Glenn • Penelope Scambly Schott • Peter M. Gordon • Phyllis Wax • Ralph La Rosa • Rick Kempa • Robert Beveridge • Robert Walton • Roger Sippl • Ron L. Dowell • Scott F. Parker • Scott M. Bade • Sharon Wood Wortman • Stephen McGuinness • Stuart Forrest • Stuart Gunter • Toni Partington • Tony Gloeggler • Tricia Knoll • Victoria Stefani • Vivienne Popperl

Sample Poems:

The Baseball Player Stephen Crane
by Alan Catlin

“I did little work at Syracuse, but
confined my abilities such as they were,
to the diamond.” ~ Stephen Crane

Manny French’s fastball rocked him back
on his heels but Crane refused to wear
the padded glove for catching.
Although his hands would be red from
the constant impact of the hard ball,
bruised after nine rounds of catching,
his expression never changed and his
enthusiasm for the game never waned.
Jumping up after each third strike,
although his hands were numb and his arm
weak, he would throw the ball down to
third as hard as he could. Never a strong
hitter, he was a capable one, even shrewd
in his placement, making the most of what
he had with an energy level that would
compensate for the lack of raw talent.
After every game he was the first man
at the pool hall for a beer and eight ball,
preferring as he would later, a famous
writer, the talk of the tavern to that of
the literate man. Education, he felt, was
better learned on the ball field, attributing
his knowledge of war to what he saw on
the baseball field, time clearly well spent
for a man who memorialized a war he never saw.

More Than Sport
by Margaret Van Every

It was sport and more than sport.
It was do or die when we were
young and fit and drove ourselves
to beat all others to the finish.
It was sport but more like life
or death to rise before the light
and polish off the miles beneath
the moon before we went to work.
If we succumbed to sloth and
stayed in bed, the competition
wouldn’t. They’d be up and at it,
gain split seconds on us, beat us
by a hair. Ah, but we weren’t beating
them, we were beating age, for we
looked younger than our peers, we
had joints of steel, the drive of turbines.
We were tough, believed we’d last
forever. We had records, medals,
trophies, clippings. Years of pounding
pavement, swimming laps, pedaling
miles, lifting iron. And what did it get
us? Bionic knees, injured shoulders,
repetitive strain and pain, back and
neck gone bad, dusty trophies and
medals laid curbside, records
smashed by younger and swifter
who rose earlier and risked even more
than we. And none of us ever ask why.

Book Launch Celebration

Saturday, May 4, 2019 
at 2:00 pm
Featuring Contributing Poets:
Brittney Corrigan • Sharon Wood Wortman • Kris Demien • Penelope Scambly Schott
Margaret Chula • Toni Partington • Joshua Plack • Vivienne Popperl • Donna Prinzmetal
Barbara A. Meier • Hanna Jane Weber • Joy McDowell • Devon Balwit • Shawn Aveningo Sanders
at
The Pond House
2215 SE Harrison Street
Milwaukie, Oregon

Enjoy a Few Photos from the Launch:

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