Making Conversation

No one wants to go unloved...

This is what my father said

towards the end of another season
gone up in flames

between interruptions
between innings
between our unspoken understanding

the game became our metaphor
for life's more complex nuances,
taking one right down the heart

of the plate. The old brush back
high and tight that sent you tumbling
in the dirt.

Love, he taught me,
was an old spit-baller
hanging on for life

looking for one last season,
never quite ready for the inevitable

long slow walk...

no one wants to leave unloved.

Ken e Bujold

©2022

Reviews

[Lorry]

We connect via shared interests, whether they be cricket, poetry or any number of things. We connect through sharing an interest, which leads to conversation, which leads to an infinity of possibilities.
Even the weather, which we can and do complain about can bring connection. And let's not forget, I'm in Scotland and the rainy season runs from January to December 😊

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the review Lorry, glad you enjoyed

[andrew mitchell]

Like salt and pepper it’s simplicity mixed within the complex.

[Chris Shaw]

I thought of my Dad and both my brothers and how sport featured heavily in their relationships. Football, golf, cricket, horse racing, you name it, they were all sport mad. I appreciated your metaphor here. Then I thought of my own relationship with my Dad. There were the art galleries, the theatre trips, music and so much more. Thanks for warm memories. I enjoyed the read Ken.

Chris

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks Chris. I am glad you enjoyed the poem. The metaphor of sports is central to the poem, but as you so kindly note, it can be substituted for another as a means to viewing our relationship with the generation of men who didnt always do touchy feely all that well
Ken e

[Red Brick Keshner]

There are those among us wherein love is more an abstract experience and the rest a more concrete and quite physical expression. To be unloved can be so simple and so complex at the same time. Good solid metaphor here. Thanks for sharing.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the kind review Fred, glad you enjoyed. And I couldn't have stated the complexity of love better than you just did

Ken e

[W. Barrett Munn]

Love the baseball interwoven in this Ken. I grew up a fan; not my dad. But I do enjoy just the way you work with the words and stanzas. And with the message, skillfully delivered.
Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

Baseball is a game I love absolutely. It has been, and will always remain the great metaphor for life. As a canadian I am also crazy for hockey, which my father was mad for, but baseball just speaks to what I wanted here, more than any other sports analogy. The father son dynamic is so rich in material. We rebel, then grow up to be like them in ways we never imagined possible, even if we still don't except who they were. if that makes sense

Ken e

[jacob erin-cilberto]

My dad took that long slow walk off the field...he had a very long career...almost 98 years worth.
we enjoyed baseball together....he took me to Yankee Stadium in the fifties so I could see The Mick, and Yogi, and Moose and Gil and Elston play...
I will always appreciate that...and I really appreciate your metaphor here.
"Dad, you wanna have a catch?"
j.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the review Jacob. Likewise for me, my dad and I shared many a quiet father son moment over a beer or two watching sports. He wasn't much of a talker of "the big things" as we like to say now, but he was the wisest man I ever knew

Ken e

[Stuart Munro]

Liked lines , love he taught me was an old spit baller , of the plate the old brush back
The game became our metaphor
As usual superb poem , Ken

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks Stuart. glad you enjoyed

[John the Baptist]

Sounds like a complex father/son relationship. One must hope there weren't too many brushbacks. I used to work in a chronic disease hospital, where there were a lot of old people who felt they were leaving unloved. Sad.

[Ken e Bujold]

not at all John. my father and I were quite close, but both of that time when deep conversations about what you were feeling didnt happen much. Things were just assumed, and talked around using standin metaphors.