The Cure by Katharine Harer

Line Drives : 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems (2002) is, without a doubt, one of the single best books of baseball poems ever put together. Whether or not you are a fan of baseball poetry, you will enjoy this book which includes dark poems, insightful poems, poems from ballplayers & The Cure:

"our whispered please combine over rows / of seats and peanut calls and pour into the ears / of our boys fixing them / with our hope the best we have to give" - Katharine Harer in The Cure (2002)
The Cure

Written by Katharine Harer © in 2002

Published: Line Drives (2002)

baseball is a good antidote for death
where else do we mutter belief scream
hope over green grass bathed
in light where else do we coach the best
out of one another

it's all right baby
you can do it
settle down guy
you'll be okay just hang in there
we need you buddy
we need a spark
be the ignitor man

our whispered pleas combine over rows
of seats and peanut calls and pour into the ears
of our boys fixing them
with our best hope the best we have to give

nowhere else do we do this together
reverently from some untapped place
in our chests saved for our children
and our lovers we thought we'd used it up
but listen to us croon making our voices
carry just the right mixture
of love and demand

our throats are sore
the peanut shells under our feet flattened
from jumping up and sinking down again
our heats extended
pumping belief
into this one afternoon

you can do it
you can do it for us
do it now come on
do it now

The Cure by Katharine Harer © in 2002


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Katharine Harer is the author of five books of poetry. She teaches at Skyline Community College just south of San Francisco. She is currently finishing work on a book of oral histories with the women who played in the AAGPBL, the women's pro league from 1943-54.

Did you know that this poem was personally selected by the editor of Line Drives : 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems, Tim Wiles, when we asked for permission to reprint just one of the wonderful poems found in his book?

This poem — The Cure — is a Baseball Almanac exclusive and appears here with expression written permission from the author. Read our Line Drives book review today to find out what we thought about the entire book.

     

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