BALLGAME
by Phil Hey
Snow weighs on the ballfield like a tarp.
No game, no boys poised or running
at the sudden click of bat and ball.
But a zoetrope of seasons turns me back,
white|green|white|green|no game|game today,
and there they are again awaiting me.
Boys, I say, can you use a second base?
It’s been a while, but I still know how to throw
that gentle toss to first, or cover first
when he’s gone in to field the sacrifice.
I’m ready again, just let me show you how.
Silence. The wind kicks up the snow
around the pitcher’s mound. A rabbit moves
from first along the basepath, only to turn
and retrace his steps, and a solitary crow
wings across the diamond with his shout
Safe, Safe, Safe and is gone. No game today.
I put my gloves back on and walk away.
Phil Hey's How It Seems To Me: New & Selected Poems (MWPH Books, 2004) is available from Tom Montag, PO Box 8, Fairwater, WI 53931 for $12.50 + $2 s&h. Phil has been writing and teaching at Briar Cliff University since 1969, and he is now a professor in the English/Writing Department. He received a B.A. in English at Monmouth College in 1964 and an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1966. He also studied creative writing under Gwendolyn Brooks at the University of Wisconsin. In 1992 he won Briar Cliff's Duff Award for the Pursuit of Excellence, and in 1998 he was given the Literacy Award for college English teachers by the Iowa Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts. Published in numerous magazines and anthologies, Phil is the author of several earlier collections of poetry: In Plain Sight, Reorganizing the Stars, Plain Label Poems, A Change of Clothes, Ballads & Songs. His poem "Route 39 south of Pittsville" won a Rainmaker Award from Zone 3 magazine. He has also received a dozen commissions for poems, most recently from the Sisters of St. Francis in Dubuque. As an editor, Phil has co-edited the Iowa Poets series with Zachary Pearce of Pterodactyl Press, including Michael Carey's The Noise the Earth Makes, Ann Struthers' Stoneboat, and James Hearst's posthumous A Country Man. He also edits for Celestial Light Press and The Briar Cliff Review, Briar Cliff's national prize-winning magazine of writing and art. He assisted Michael Carey in the editing of Voices on the Landscape: Contemporary Iowa Poets (Loess Hills Books).
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A NOTE TO THE POETS OUT THERE
I'm interested in considering your "poems of place" for publication in The Middlewesterner's "Saturday's Poem" feature; send two or three of your best in the body of an e-mail addressed to [email protected] . Put "Saturday's Poem" in the subject line. Then be patient. I will get back to you about whether I'll use your work or not. Send along a short biographical note and information about where your books can be purchased and I'll include that when your poem runs. There's no payment involved for having your work appear in "Saturday's Poem," but the feature is seen by some few high class readers. Click here for complete index of and access to "Saturday's Poems" poems published prior to September 18, 2004.
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