by Kelly
Let me be brutally honest: I do not like sports.
Before I get a load of angry emails schooling me on the benefits and life-lessons learned by participating in sports, let me clear things up a bit. My objection to sports has more to do with the hours one can waste watching them on TV and the insane amounts of money earned by professional sports stars than the actual games themselves. Heck, I grew up playing soccer. I was captain of my high school swim team. I get it. Sports breed positive self-image, foster cooperation, and encourage physical fitness. But still, I don’t like sports.
I consider it quite a feat, therefore, that I picked up and read a book called Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written About the Game, which was edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura.
The book is an anthology of haiku on the topic of baseball. The first part of the book showcases haiku written by North American writers; the second half of the book features haiku by Japanese poets.
What I found most interesting about the book was that there are actually enough haiku written about baseball to merit an entire book.
I suppose, though, that this shouldn’t have surprised me. The world is full of quirky subcultures — why not baseball haiku?
And when you stop to think about it, the cross-cultural phenomenon going on here makes real sense: The Americans gave the world baseball; the Japanese gave the world haiku.
Even so, I just couldn’t work up proper enthusiasm for most of these baseball haiku. In fact, the baseball haiku I found myself most drawn to had little to do with the game and more to do with sex appeal.
For example:
in the stands
his arm around his wife
he winks at me
It was written by a woman named Brenda Gannam, who also penned this one:
handsome pitcher
my eyes drift down
to the mound
And this haiku by the Japanese writer Imai Sei, speaks to all restless souls stuck inside on a bright, summer day:
from the classroom
one can see the baseball field
spring clouds
Find it on Amazon: Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written about the Game
This is a really cute review. I never liked sports and I didn’t even do any in high school. For me, I was more interested in going on a bike ride and later it became yoga.
And then I met B. Husbando LOVES baseball. New York baseball. After I learned how it is played I developed an appreciation and interest. But… all this steroids nonsense has made us both less interested. And the huge salaries, too. I think I like baseball in an old fashioned-y kind of way. Imagine all those players from the old days who did it because it was their talent and not because they could secure a Pepsi contract.
But their are the minor leagues. I think I’ll give that a go! So in that spirit, the spirit of the minor leagues I think I’d like to pick up this book. Perhaps as a present for B?
Comment by Alison — July 13, 2009 @ 8:25 am
Yes, I’m liking this idea a lot! My family LOVES baseball, especially my son, and I think this would make a great gift to tie in our two loves. We are fans of the Los Aanglese Dodgers, and have a major distaste for the exorbitant salaries being paid, but both agree that there isn’t anything finer than sitting in the stands at Dodgers Stadium (or any stadium for that matter) on a sunny summer day and enjoying the roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat, a hot and tasty hot dog with mustard and a nice cold beer! We have a semi=pro team here in town as well, which is great, too. Nothing big and fancy…heck, I even love a Little League game! Great combination, I say! Where can I get my hands on this book?
Comment by Carol Ann Starr — July 13, 2009 @ 11:09 am
Not sure what happened with my fingers on my last post, but that should read “Los Angeles Dodgers”…next time I’ll just abbreviate with L.A., ok?
Comment by Carol Ann Starr — July 13, 2009 @ 11:11 am
Hey Carol Ann,
I found it in my local library system, but we also included a link up above to it on Amazon too.
Comment by Kelly — July 13, 2009 @ 12:49 pm