Poetry Friday: The First

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Paul Lowry

The First

Jackie Robinson

First African American baseball 

player in the modern era

January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972

I run down 

the line, eight feet, 

nine. . .and feint to feel 

the rush between the third 

baseman’s brush back and home.

Whitey Ford stares through me, a sneak thief 

playing on his disbelief, a phantom blackbird hopping 

on and off 

the dare, flinching,

inching along the ledge

to legend. I time the windup, 

my pistons primed to shovel under

Yogi’s glove. Yankee Stadium is stunned!

But you can hear the cheering all the way from Harlem. 


© J. Patrick Lewis

[This poem will appear in When Thunder Comes: 

Poems for Civil Rights Leaders, Chronicle Books, 2012, 
and is used with the permission of the author.]

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Thank you, Mr. Poetry Ambassador, sir, for sending this poem for us to feature on our blog for Poetry Friday today!


I poked around the Internet a bit to find out some more information about Jackie Robinson, seeing as I'm not any kind of baseball fan.


I found the official Jackie Robinson website.
Here's more about Whitey Ford, pitcher for the Yankees, and Yogi Berra, catcher for the Yankees.
And here's Jackie Robinson stealing home, an amazing and daring move. Yogi Berra's not too happy about it!

Elaine has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Wild Rose Reader. Steal on over and check out the poetry offerings for today!