Challenge Poem

Hello everyone!
Last poem of 2010. This is a challenge post response to my nephew. He wanted to see if I could do a poem about football. Well...here it is. I write about what I know. I was an offensive lineman in High School, and played two years of semi-pro football as an offensive lineman, and coached one year of semi-pro as the Offensive Line Coach. If you want the full effect of the poem, I highly encourage you to read it out loud with an old fashioned Blues beat in your head. It is more fun that way.

Talk to ya next year.

Lineman Blues

Just as I lean forward,
The fans scream from their pews.
The ref throws a flag at me,
I got those Lineman blues!

Refrain:
Lineman Blues...Oh...the Lineman Blues.
The Drive, it just keeps on foldin’.
‘Cause I can’t stop holdin’
On to dem ol’ Lineman Blues.

My body’s like iron.
Make a linebacker moan.
Just don’t throw a pass to me,
Because my hands are made of stone.

Refrain:
Lineman Blues...Oh...got the Lineman Blues.
The fans don’t really know me.
No autographs to slow me,
From dem ol’ Lineman Blues.

Can’t catch no endorsements,
Can’t seem to light a fuse.
Nobody wants to see a lineman
Wearing blue jeans or drinking booze.

Refrain:
Lineman Blues...Oh...the Lineman Blues.
If we win, they never name me,
Any sack, y’know they blame me,
With dem ol’ Lineman Blues.

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Have a great new year, and cheer
for a lineman once in a while!

b

Christmas Poem

I've been out of the loop for a month now. But things are slowing down and I have time to write (and answer some challenge poem ideas). Today's poem is new, and I wrote it with the past and the present in mind. Christmas time, like so many things in my life, have changed since childhood. There was a time when I was quite the "bah humbug" type of guy. Guess I am going in a circle in terms of how I see this time of year. I'm still not the type to decorate or shop for gifts, but I see Christmas as meaning something again.


Never Sure About Christmas

I’m never sure about Christmas.
When hope loops like ropes of tinsel on a tree.
Brought out for display with the music of the times,
Then packed away
In boxes,
Forgotten until winter reminds us again
To decorate our lives for each other.

Your hope is beautiful.
Wear it year around.

I’m never sure why we shop
For our presents
While our pasts
Lie unwrapped and put to the side.
We run down the stairs,
Children once more,
Ripping the wrappings of our future.
Watching what others become.

I'll help you assemble your happiness,
You can steady my bike as I steer into life.

I’m never sure if I’ll like what I get.
Christmas is the stuff of uncertainty.
The mystery of cookies and milk eaten as I sleep,
Finding gifts I must figure out on my own.

I’m never sure about Christmas
Until I hold it close.
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Let me know your thoughts.
Have a safe and happy holiday.

Orn