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10 Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting and baseball is like writing. You can never tell with either how it will go or what you will do . . . —Marianne Moore, “Baseball and Writing” (1961) The Poets at the Ball Game are not used to such good seats: behind third base, a perfect view, outfield grass as green as Lorca’s Verde que te quiero verde. They feel a bit like Miss Moore, honored by the Yankees in ’68 to toss out the first pitch, dream of “Poetry Day at the Park”: a personalized sonnet for the first one hundred fans and free haiku for kids. The crowd raps out rhythms with minibats, signed by the poet laureate, count iambs during the caesura of the seventh inning stretch, recite heroic couplets for the hitter who launches a long fly beyond the upper deck, filled with visiting midshipmen, white uniforms a blur. They cheer with the sound of frothing waves, a thousand cranes in flight. A forest of blank pages tossed aloft. Baltimore Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland August 9, 2005 ...

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