The poem below makes me want to go to a Giants game. It has all the imagery and concrete details that help convey the poet’s experience to the reader. If I were going to write a poem about how baseball is for me, I would want to leave out the miserably cold wind that I suffered at more than one night game in San Francisco, in the middle of summer, but I would work hard to describe something of the smells of the ball park, and how the Giants uniform, in all its variations, looks so beautiful against the green grass.

April is National Poetry Month, and if you have children I especially encourage you to hop over to The Poem Farm and see for yourself what a wealth of poetry-teaching resources Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has collected there. This one is by Amy herself, but she keeps a huge collection of poetry from all over.

REASONS

crack of a bat
smack in a mitt
pop of a fly
feel of a hit
spit and a pitch
steal of a base
slide into home
look on a face
dive and a catch
quick double play
tag and a throw
excitement
dismay
extra inning
cheering
winning

it’s not hard
to find a reason
baseball is my
favorite season

© Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Used with permission