Today is Opening Day for the Rochester Red Wings. Although one of my favorite things to do on a warm summer night is to watch the Red Wings play, I won’t be sitting in the bleachers today. I’ll be there is spirit though, so today’s poems have a baseball theme. They are not about baseball but use baseball as a metaphor. The first one is about beginnings, also appropriate for opening day.

 

This Is How It Really Happened

 

In the Big Inning

God created the heavens and the earth.

Without so much as a practice swing

He strode up to the plate

and hit one after another out of the park.

     Bam!  Light.

     Bam!  Heaven

     Bam!  Land

     Bam!  Sun and Moon

     Bam!  Fish and Birds

     Bam!  Man

At the end of the inning it was

6 hits, 6 runs, no errors.

After a victory lap around the field,

He tipped His hat to the bleachers.

“It is good.”

 

Now for an ending poem. This is a nonet.

 

Bottom Of The Ninth

 

Lord, if You’re about to call the whole

ball game, please give me one more hit.

Let me tag all the bases.

Forget all my strike outs.

Forgive my errors.

And then let me

slide safely

into

home.