There's No Tackling in Poetry!

It all comes down to this: green and yellow versus black and gold; the team from Wisconsin versus the guys from Western Pennsylvania; the Cheeseheads against the Terrible Towels.  It's the Packers versus the Steelers this weekend in Super Bowl XLV!  How many is that?  A good reason to learn those Roman numerals!  So serve up a steaming bowl of homemade chili, nibble on the buffalo wings, and dip into those gooey gooey nachos.  Are you ready for some football... and some poetry?

When athletes perform well in competition, spectators sometimes describe the accomplishment as poetry in motion; they are using an idiom to say that the performance is beautiful to watch. In celebration of Super Bowl weekend, Poetry on Parade is taking a closer look at motion in poetry.  Our first poem is from Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More by Jack Prelutsky:

I've got the ball, and now I need

To race downfield with all my speed,

To dodge and duck and slip and twist,

To fool the defense, make them miss.

I'm almost in the end zone now,

And still untouched... I don't know how.

I score a touchdown , and we've won.

I love football.  Football's fun.

 There's plenty of motion in this football poem. In the first stanza, the speaker races down the field, dodging and ducking, slipping and twisting, eluding the opposing team.  Word choice sets the poem in motion, and rhythm and rhyme keep it moving. A stanza, by the way, is two or more lines of poetry that form one part of a poem.  A poem's stanzas are often of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.   

The poem's second stanza contains some of the emotion that makes sport and poetry alive and interesting: the football-playing poet is breathing hard, mind racing as fast as feet. The poem ends in a moment of victory and with a feeling of celebration.

An old television series, The Wide World of Sports, promised to bring viewers the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat; in many ways, sports poetry fulfills that promise, too.  Our second poem, also from Jack Prelutsky's Good Sports, describes the motion and emotion of a not-so-victorious day on the field:

I just caught a pass

And I'm well on my way.

I think I will score

Seven touchdowns today.

Oh no!  I've been tackled--

I fumble the ball.

I don't like this game,

Not a bit, not at all.

So let's celebrate the Super Bowl, Poetry Paraders! When the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers take the field this weekend-- and when we take the sofa in front of the television-- let's remember to cheer for the poetry in motion and to find the motion in our poetry.

Alert Poetry Paraders may even discover a bit of poetry during Super Bowl commercial breaks: many advertisers use jingles-- short verses designed to grab our attention using sound repetitions and catchy rhythms-- when they want us to remember their products.

Poetry on Parade's Super Bowl Prediction: We like the imagery Green Bay gives us ... thousands of people cheering wildly with wedges of cheese on their heads.  And we admire Pittsburgh fans' use of alliteration with those Terrible Towels.  But we're thinking that, in a closed-dome stadium, safe from wind and weather, the Packers' passing game will prevail.

Green Bay 20; Pittsburgh 13.

In the beginning was the

Kickoff.

The ball flew

spiraling true

into the end zone

where it was snagged,

neatly hugged

by a swivel-hipped back

who ran up the field

and was smeared.

The game has begun.

The game has been won.

The game goes on.

Long live the game.

Gather and lock

tackle and block

move, move around the arena

and always the beautiful trajectories.

from The Sidewalk Racer and Other Poems of Sports and Motion

by Lillian Morrison