Pop Fly

These poems all appeared in one of my trifold flyers, titled “Pop Fly,” in 1998. Most of these haiku have been published in various journals. Many also appeared in the baseball haiku issue of Fan Magazine (1998), and the first poem has been read at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (2001). Some of my baseball haiku also appear in Cor van den Heuvel’s Baseball Haiku (New York: Norton, 2007). I agree with Cor that baseball and haiku were made for each other. See also my “Taking the Field” rengay with Christopher Herold.

birthday picnic—

grandma’s throw

halfway to the toddler

cows in the outfield—

country little leaguers

waiting in the rain

home from work—

a scuffed baseball

among shards of glass

tailgate party—

playing catch

with an empty bottle

in the upper bleacher

a stranger waves

to another stranger

base hit—

the outfielder’s

four shadows

runner off first the pitcher’s tight jaw

seventh-inning stretch

dust

on the catcher’s knees

pop fly sound of clapping chairs

first drops of rain—

puffs of dust

rise from the infield

rolling down the ballpark steps

a paper bag

the shape of a bottle

last out—

my candy bar wrapper

falls under the seat

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