A Reflection on 'pinged hammy'

This poem takes after bean spasms by Ted Berrigan. I have cribbed a few lines from him, namely ‘Now that the Earth is changing’, ‘Praising, that’s it!’ & ‘I woke up in Heaven / He woke, and wondered more, / how many angels / on this train huh?’

This was done after reading Ted’s poem and thinking this is great… what if it was about watching the football? So I thank Ted Berrigan. I don’t think he would care for AFL but I do, rather deeply.

Recently I have been trying to write the first great football poem. Or maybe at least to write a few good football poems. There’s a surprising lack of them, both good ones & in general. Gareth wrote a good one about Robert Harvey & the ‘om’. There’s that one about being born into Tigers gear but it’s shit. I think there is an impasse with poetry & football, a feeling like they exist at the opposite end of culture or something. That’s crap - they don’t call the Grand Final the ‘Big Dance’ for nothing. Football is poetry in motion. Poetry is football in slow motion - five year plans & rebuilding phases. Hot streaks & underdogs. Winners & losers. Both are exciting to watch.

For those who are not footy-literate, firstly; get real & watch the football. It rocks. If you don’t have a team, go for the bulldogs or Gold Coast. Secondly, here is a little glossary of terms for you.

Pinged hammy - torn hamstring.

Clearance - A clearance is when you get the football out of a stoppage ie. a ball up, boundary throw in. Good references on this material include the back catalogue of T. Liberatore, J. Dawson, C. Oliver.

Flanker - either half back or half forward. Plays up the ground. Kind of a sexy position at the moment. Read the works of N. Diacos, B. Dale & E. Richards for further information.

Screamer - an epic mark. For more on the subject see: A. Naughton, J. Howe, L. Barry (you star!), A. Jesaulenko (you beauty!)

I hope you like the poem. Go dogs.