Poetry Breakfast

Reading Seamus Heaney While Watching Baseball

Funeral in Derry shouldering my father’s casket. Fastball on the outside corner catches the cleanup hitter looking.
Grandfather cuts sod, downing a pint of milk amidst green, rolling fields. Batter tops ball toward third and sprints down one side of the sharp green diamond.
Head swiveling down to book, up to screen.
Heaney conjures gods who live around the corner. I dig fingers in deep peat, smell the sod while today’s gods dance in the outfield in pinstripes.
Thor’s hammer swoops through grey clouds.
Vikings anchor in Galway Bay. White ball flies through blue skies tracked by the outfielder who gloves it at the wall.
My sofa’s a ship flying over the Atlantic back to ancestral sod and peat-roofed huts.
I play catch with leprechauns.
Keep one ear turned to play-by-play.
“Reading Seamus Heaney While Watching Baseball” can be found in Peter M. Gordon’s newest collection of poems Let’s Play Two: Poems About Baseball.

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

Photo by from Unsplash.

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

Rays Fans

Every April we fall in love
with twenty-five men

knowing they will break
our hearts.

We whisper their true names
in late night stat sessions.

Carry talismans embossed
with team symbols.

Each win fine wine.

Only we fans, tempered
by years of losses,

low payrolls, miracle pennants,
fully understand

These men we watch
and worship.

These possessors
of our dreams.

“Rays Fans” can be found in Peter M. Gordon’s newest collection of poems Let’s Play Two: Poems About Baseball.

About the Poet:
Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and websites, including Slipstream, Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, and the Sandhill Review. He recently released a chapbook, “Let’s Play Two: Poems about Baseball.” His first collection, Two Car Garage, was published by CHB Media. Peter’s a freelance journalist and sportswriter whose work appeared in over one dozen books and publications ranging from The New York Daily News to the West Orange Times-Observer. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program. Let’s Play Two can be purchased at Amazon.

Photo by Kelsey Ann Vere.

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Start your morning with a nourishing poem.  Follow us on  Twitter, Facebook, and  Tumblr,  and enjoy a new poem every morning straight to your feed.

Thanksgiving

Even when we only worked part-time jobs
fixed the thermostat at zero
dried our wash on a line out the window

we still saved spare change for a turkey
scrounged potatoes and onion from Key Food
poured two buck chuck in jelly glasses

grasped each other
every night
under threadbare blankets and

tended fierce belief
like a hot fire
lighting our path
toward a radiant future.
About the Poet:

Peter M. Gordon’s poems have appeared in several magazines, books and websites, including Slipstream, the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature, 34th Parallel, Cultural Weekly, the Provo Canyon Review, and of course, Poetry Breakfast.  He’s a founder and past President of Orlando Area Poets, the largest chapter of the Florida State Poetry Association. Peter taught poetry workshops at the Florida Writer’s Association Conference and to several other groups in Central Florida. His poetry collection, Two Car Garage, is available from all online book sellers. Peter lives in Orlando, Florida and teaches in Full Sail University’s Film Production MFA program after spending 35 years in the entertainment industry, developing, producing, and curating content.

Poetry Breakfast accepts submissions of poetry and poetry related creative non-fiction year-round.  See our Submission Guidelines page for details on submitting your work.

Photo by Olichel Adamovich.