I thought about posting a sports poem for today since it is the opening day of the Summer Olympics, but, I wasn't able to find one that spoke to me. So, I'm going to share a short poem by Martha Collins called "Lines." I'll say it's tangentially related to sports since it does speak about distances between two points--and what is a race if not covering a distance between the start and finish lines?
LinesI'm sure there will be a number of sports/Olympics related poems for Poetry Friday this week, if so, you'll be sure to find them at the Round-Up. It is being held at LifeIsBetterWithBooks.com.
Draw a line. Write a line. There.
Stay in line, hold the line, a glance
between the lines is fine but don't
turn corners, cross, cut in, go over
or out, between two points of no
return's a line of flight, between
two points of view's a line of vision.
But a line of thought is rarely
straight, an open line's no party
line, however fine your point.
A line of fire communicates, but drop
your weapons and drop your line,
consider the shortest distance from x
to y, let x be me, let y be you.
Found in Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, selected by Billy Collins [811 POE].
Photo courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2 comments:
The last line makes the poem for me, taking it from logic to communion.
Yes! Up until that point it was all word play, but the ending made it all real.
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