Thank you to Pamela, Kay and Pam for the poems about champions.
*********************
Author: PHELON, WILLIAM A.
Date Born: 1871
Date Died: 1925
Nationality: AMERICAN
Profession: BASEBALL WRITER
Title: THE CHAMPION'S BAT
Text:
HEAVY and thick and long,
Closely grained in the wood?
Bearing the marks of battle,
As a champion's favorite should?
Marred where it crashed on the leather?
Like the lines on a general's brow?
This was the champion's bat?
Where is the champion now?
This is the bat that battered
Speed and "straight ones" and curves?
This is the bat that baffled
Cunning and gameness and nerves?
This is the bat that conquered
Like the rush of a battleship's prow?
This was the champion's bat?
Where is the champion now?
Black as night is the ashwood,
Save where some ancient stain,
Mark of a thundering base hit,
Spots and crosses the grain?
Swung long ago by a hero,
Active and lithe as a cat?
Where is the champion now?
This was the champion's bat!
Oil-spotted, polished and sanded
How it was loved in the past,
When the champion bore it to battle
And his glory was spread on the blast!
Then, but a cheer for the champion,
Asking not when, why, or how??
This was the champion's bat?
Where is the champion now?
=A9Copyright 2004 Roth Publishing, Inc.
***************************************
World Champions
A cardinal is perched upon a bat
Upon a pennant on a pole upon a field: that
Means you pay to see
The redbirds warming up: this is baseball.
All but a few of us waited weeks
For the occasion: so tonight
There is nothing disconcerting in the sight
Of these birdmen whose redbills might be beaks.
The game begins: and not for want of nerve
The Giant is defeated by a slingshot throw
Which cuts across the diamond like a flaw,
Like light across the Tablets of the Law,
Or thunder when the high blue heavens yield:
A cardinal is perched upon a bat;
A cardinal is perched upon a field.
William Jay Smith
*********************************
http://www.ncmat.com/etc/poems/bpalmer.asp
A Champion's Poem to Live By
by Brandon Palmer, wrestler, Riverside HS, class of 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------=
----
----
glory doth not lie in a crown that rests upon an egotistical head
and round the neck of a true champion is not a medal found
nor in boisterous comments he hath said
honor does not lurk on a face of overconfidence
only driven by praise, vanity, and cheers
desire is in his heart and conscience
and glory shown through his blood, sweat, and tears
the elite is not something you waltz into
'tis more like a learned rebirth
for champions feel pain too
but their breaking point is not of this earth
http://www.sffworld.com/authors/s/strontium_david/poems/thechampion.html=
The Champion by David Strontium
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>=20
Ruth Ann Noe, librarian =20
Perryton Jr. High School phone: 806.435.360 x227=20
510 S. Eton St. fax: 806.435.3601=20
Perryton, TX 79070 e-mail: ranoe@perrytonisd.com=20
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