National Baseball Poetry Festival

Punching the Mascot
By Ellen Foos

It playfully taunted the referee
by biting its own tail in dismay
and shadowed an unsuspecting usher
into the upper deck,
crimes very soon forgiven,
unless you hate showmanship.
With its large head and poor eyesight
you enjoy watching it flail at halftime
in a match with the hometown mascot.
The person inside the dark costume
sighting only straight ahead
doesn’t see your approach,
is deafened by imitating a beast
in a crowd of excited onlookers.
So to punch it seems cruel,
with children watching
who just shook its paw.

Meet Poet Ellen Foos of Webster, NY:

~ What's one interesting fact about you that most people wouldn't guess? I lived on the same block as the Hell’s Angels in NYC.

~What’s your go-to snack when you're deep in a writing session? Pistachios.

~ What’s the most unexpected place or situation that inspired a poem? The men’s bathroom when the women’s line was too long.

~What's a peculiar habit you have when writing that others might find surprising? I put my feet up on the desk.

Ellen Foos is the founder and publisher of Ragged Sky Press and was the recipient of fellowships to MacDowell and the Vermont Studio Center. She has two poetry collections, The Remaining Ingredients and Little Knitted Sister. She retired as production editor from Princeton University Press after 25 years.

raggedsky.com

The Pen and the Bat
For Laura

By Lawrence Kessenich

At five or six, my firstborn
daughter picked up a stick
and swung it like a batter
waiting on deck. Amused,
I took a stone and tossed it
in her direction. “Hit it,”
I said, and hit it she did—
a clean, swift stroke sent it
whizzing past my ear. Dumb luck
I thought, but tried it again, and
again she laid the wood on it,
knocking it to the street.
I smiled. She smiled.
I gathered more stones.

Soon it was clear she had
superb coordination
between hand and eye. And I,
the strikeout king of North Shore
Little League, was dreaming her
into a softball scholarship
to college. I bought her
a Whiffle ball and bat
and for a couple years
she humored me, but
at seven or eight she dropped
the bat and never picked it up again.

Instead, she took up a thick
child’s pencil, not much thinner
than that first stick, and began
to hit line drives to center field,
metaphorically speaking,
her dialogue crisp as
a Hank Aaron single,
her characters colorful
as Casey Stengel,
her imagination soaring
like the moon over Fenway Park.

Meet Poet Lawrence Kessenich of Watertown, Mass:

~What's one interesting fact about you that most people wouldn't guess? My wife and I can be seen kissing down the row behind Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones in the Field of Dreams Fenway scene.

~ What’s your go-to snack when you're deep in a writing session? Raw carrots or nuts—the chewing helps with concentration.

~ What’s the most unexpected place or situation that inspired a poem? A one-line news story on an office building elevator screen: “An Oregon woman was arrested for calling 911 to ask that ’the cutest cop I've ever seen’ be sent back to her house."

~What's a peculiar habit you have when writing that others might find surprising? When I’m stuck, I’ve been know to go for a walk along the Charles, which usually leads to an inspiration popping into my head.

Lawrence Kessenich won the 2010 Strokestown International Poetry prize in Ireland in 2010. His poetry has appeared in the Sewanee Review, Atlanta Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and many other magazines. He has published five books of poetry, the novel Cinnamon Girl, and has had plays performed at many festivals.

https://www.lawrence-writer.com/

"Baseball’s very rhythms are those of poetry, acknowledging that if everything can change in a moment, then attention to those moments is an essential duty.” ~ Levi Stahl.

Starting this month, the National Baseball Poetry Festival, of Worcester, Mass. will feature the poets and poems of our 2024 festival season twice a month. Our first featured poet will be revealed tomorrow.



(Picture of the 1878 Worcester Worcesters, the city's first official baseball team.)

Congratulations once again to all our winners of the National Baseball Poetry Festival adult poetry contest!

Over the next few months we will feature each of the poets and their winning poems. Enjoy the season!

David Lott ~ Preseason Report

Herbert Munshine ~ You Should Know His Name

Ivan Smason ~ Triples

Stephen Straight ~ Selfie

John Long Peck ~ Stowe Factory Baseball Team

Nate Jacob ~ For the Glove of the Game

Ellen Foos ~ Punching the Mascot

Tom Driscoll ~ The Dead

Lawrence Kessenich ~ The Pen and the Bat

William J. Meissner ~ The Outfielder’s Girlfriend

Tom Clark ~ The Tools of Ignorance

Clara Silverstein ~ Power Hitter

R. Bremner ~ The Ghost Chaser

Sterling Warner ~ Classic Yankee

William Moorhead ~ Sports Drinks

Tom Lagasse ~ Open Field

Kristen Baum DeBeasi ~ The Secret Lives of Baseballs

Jeff Brain ~ Vampire Pitch

Karen Warinsky ~ Little League Moms

Scott Bolohan ~ Sneaking Down

Thank you to Cait Kemp from The Gardner News for joining us last weekend and for highlighting our poetry contest!

Local students honored at Polar Park for poetry submissions about baseball Local students had the chance to read their poems about baseball at Polar Park during the National Baseball Poetry Festival.

Thank you to the for hosting our open mic this afternoon!

A full house tonight at ! Here until 10pm! Come on down for our baseball poetry open mic! 🎤 ⚾️☘️

Congratulations to this year’s youth poetry contest winners!
We had a great afternoon on the berm hearing some incredible poems from our youth poets!
Open mic is starting in a few minutes at ! Hope to see you there!

The National Baseball Poetry Festival is off to a great start! Thank you to everyone who joined us for our welcome reception tonight!!!⚾️

The weekend is here!!! 🎉
Tonight we will be welcoming our poets from across the country, and tomorrow YOU can hear them LIVE!
Join us for our National Baseball Poetry Festival Open Mics at the from 3:30pm-5:30pm, and at and from 7:00pm-10:00pm! We hope to see you there! Make sure to take photos and tag .

The countdown is on! We hope that you will join us this weekend for the 2nd Annual National Baseball Poetry Festival! Make sure to follow along this week for updates on all of our events!
This year we are very excited to welcome over 40 poets from across the U.S. to Worcester for this very special one-of-a-kind fest! ⚾️
Boland's Bar and Patio Steel & Wire Cocktail Lounge Worcester Red Sox Worcester Public Library Worcester Poet Laureate Worcester County Poetry Association Baseball Bard

We're a little over a week away from the 2nd annual National Baseball Poetry Festival! Check out this interview with festival founder Steve Biondolillo on the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Chamber Exchange the TV Show, and stay tuned for a full schedule of events over the next couple of days!

Chamber Exchange the TV Show- Steve Biondolillo, Founder, National Baseball Poetry Festival Tim Murray speaks to Steve Biondolillo, Founder of the National Baseball Poetry Festival that will celebrate it's second year here in Worcester May 3-5. base...

📢LAST CALL FOR ADULT POETRY CONTEST SUBMISSIONS!📢
The National Baseball Poetry Festival invites submissions of poems that deal with any aspect of the gamesmanship, nature, and atmosphere of Baseball and/or Softball, for example: opening day, ballpark food, childhood memories, first pitch, athletic heroes, uniforms, ballparks, Little League, body English, dugout chatter, the season of the game, etc.
No restriction on form. Poets may submit up to 3 poems for consideration. Each poem should fit on a single page. The thematic views of baseball/softball and the game will be given wide interpretation by the judge(s).
Poetry Submissions are due by April 17th!
Visit https://baseballpoetryfest.org/baseball-poetry-contests/ for contest information and details!

📢YOUTH POETRY CONTEST APPLICATIONS DUE TOMORROW!📢

The National Baseball Poetry Festival is a celebration of poetry whose themes focus on Baseball and/or Softball! The festival will take place at Polar Park, May 3-5. All students, and Little Leaguers, grades 4-12, are invited to submit poems with a baseball and/or softball theme, for example: opening day, ballpark food, Polar Park, first pitch, athletic heroes, uniforms, ballparks, Little League, dugout chatter, the season of the game, etc.
Poetry Submissions are due by April 17th!
Visit https://baseballpoetryfest.org/baseball-poetry-contests/ for contest information and details!

Just 5 days until the deadline for our poetry contests! Make sure to get your submission in as soon as possible!
Check out this great article about the upcoming festival!

Baseball poetry festival a sure 'hit' The second annual Baseball Poetry Festival is set for May 3 and 4 at Polar Park, and a 'team' of young wordsters are ready for it.

Check out this great article about Cheryl Bonin, one of our incredible National Baseball Poetry Festival poets!

Baseball and poetry change the life of Sutton writer - The Millbury-Sutton Chronicle by Melissa McKeon, The Millbury Sutton Chronicle SUTTON — Cheryl Bonin was a social worker for 30 years and now looks back on her career through the lens of a writer: “The kind of writing I did, you couldn’t be creative,” she says. “It was, ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’” Bonin might not...

Did you catch our interview with Hank Stolz on Radio Worcester and the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Voice of Business? Have a listen here https://on.soundcloud.com/K2G9t1WrR1c8QMbv5

📢National Baseball Poetry Festival Now Accepting Applications for Adult Poetry Contest!
The National Baseball Poetry Festival invites submissions of poems that deal with any aspect of the gamesmanship, nature, and atmosphere of Baseball and/or Softball, for example: opening day, ballpark food, childhood memories, first pitch, athletic heroes, uniforms, ballparks, Little League, body English, dugout chatter, the season of the game, etc.

No restriction on form. Poets may submit up to 3 poems for consideration. Each poem should fit on a single page. The thematic views of baseball/softball and the game will be given wide interpretation by the judge(s).

Poetry Submissions are due by April 17th!
Visit https://baseballpoetryfest.org/baseball-poetry-contests/ for contest information and details!

The National Baseball Poetry Festival is a celebration of poetry whose themes focus on Baseball and/or Softball! The festival will take place at Polar Park, May 3-5. All students, and Little Leaguers, grades 4-12, are invited to submit poems with a baseball and/or softball theme, for example: opening day, ballpark food, Polar Park, first pitch, athletic heroes, uniforms, ballparks, Little League, dugout chatter, the season of the game, etc.
Poetry Submissions are due by April 17th!

Visit https://baseballpoetryfest.org/baseball-poetry-contests/ for contest information and details!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our press conference yesterday announcing our second year!
This year the National Baseball Poetry Festival will take place May 3, 4, and 5 and we will once again host poets from across the country to celebrate our favorite past times-baseball and poetry. Keep an eye out for a schedule of events and information about our Adult and Youth Poetry Contest! https://baseballpoetryfest.org/

IT’S OFFICIAL! ⚾️🎉
The National Baseball Poetry Festival is back for a second year! Stay tuned for photos from today’s press conference at the Worcester Public Library.
Worcester Red Sox
https://baseballpoetryfest.org/

The first ever National Baseball Poetry Festival was a huge success!! ⚾️🙌🏻

Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of Festival Founder & Organizer Steve Biondolillo being interviewed in the Polar Park Broadcast Booth by by Cooper Boardman (left) and Michael Antonellis (right) while they called the game!