The Hammer Throw Poetry by William Lindsey

From "The Little Book of Sports". Poetry compiled and edited by Wallace and Frances Rice. published by The Reilly & Britton Co, in 1910.

I offered to type this out in comments to my previous post on this book. Cary Cartter agreed to let me. Here it is...

We are the children of the strong god Thor
We hurl his hammer through the hollow sky;
No task is this for feeble hands to try:
This is the sport that men and gods adore.

A giant race are we, who each in turn
Step in the magic circle's narrow ring
Around our heads the old god's hammer swing,
And send it whirling where the sunbeams burn.

Our fingers twine the handle tightly round,
Firm as a mountain oak we plant our feet,
With one long breath, filling each cell complete,
We lift and swing the dead weight from the ground.

Around our heads we swing with quickening speed,
The hot blood pressing in each swollen vein,
Each muscle corded with its mighty strain,
The handle bending like a river reed.

A step, a turn, and staggering, we hurl
The heavy hammer whistling through the air;
We watch it in the sunbeams fly and flare;
We see it settle with a thud and whirl.

All can not win; our giant game is o'er;
'T is better to be last in such a test,
Than in a little sport to rank the best;
We are the children of the strong god Thor.

~ ~ ~ ~ William Lindsey ~ ~ ~ ~

Feel free to comment.




~~~~~
Technorati Tags -
Poetry -
Sports -
Books -

~~~~~

Little Book of SportsSports Poems from The Little Book Series

Came across a jewel of a book today. It combines two of my least favorite things. Poetry and Sports.

Well maybe 'least favorite' is overstated. Cleaning up after my dog is way above each of those.

Really, poetry is OK if it rhymes and says something. If I have to think about what it says it has lost me as a customer. But some people like that 'New Verse' so to each his own... I loved Hiawatha for example. Read the whole thing twice in my life. Might read it again someday. - And sports like baseball, basketball and football is great to watch if I'm tied in a chair with toothpicks holding my eyes open. I do like to watch gymnastics and snow skiing so I'm not against all sports...

Anyway. The pick of the week for my poetry posting is a neat little book called "The Little Book of Sports". Poetry compiled and edited by Wallace and Frances Rice. published by The Reilly & Britton Co, in 1910 and as stated in the title of this posting part of "The Little Book Series" whose other titles I've listed at the bottom of this post.

Thirty-two different sports listed in the Index of Sports and forty names listed in the Index of Authors. Seventy-seven poems total.

Some of the sports are Baseball (Casey at the Bat of course with 5 others.), Football (5), Hammer Throwing (1), Fishing (3), and Golf (8). Some are funny, some serious. - Of course I like the funny ones.

Here is a quick one on Cycling by John Joy Bell that shows that at the turn of the last century there was a different set of traffic problems...

I'd rather be a cyclist
Than any other beast,
For though he slays he never stays
upon the slain to feast.

It's pleasant to remember,
While lying on the stones,
How though you're dead, you needn't dread
That he will pick your bones.

He comes! You fall! He's gone! That's all!
He Doesn't mind the least.
Oh I'd rather be a cyclist
Than any other beast.

~ ~ ~ John Joy Bell ~ ~ ~
1871-1934

Other titles listed on the back page of this book:

Little Book of Love
Little Book of Kisses
Little Book of Friendship
Little Book of Brides
Little Book of Sports
Little Book of Out of Doors
Little Book of Cheer
Little Book of Lullabies
Little Book of Laughter
Little Book of Schooldays
Little Book of Bohemia
all edited and compiled by Wallace and Frances Rice.
~~~~~
~~~~~
Technorati Tags -
Poetry -
Books -
Sports -

~~~~~
google892b56a448d1af64.html

ESPN Video On Alexi Salamone

To those who don't care about sports but love life I would be amiss in not asking you to take 8-9 minutes of your life to watch this video. You will not regret it!

Just in case you missed this which was played on ESPN I thought I'd bring it back up to the top. I had posted it as an update on a previous post.

Alexi Salamone on ESPN

This is one of the most inspiring video's I've seen. Keep an eye out for this kid in the 2008 Special Olympics.

Update: It appears that the ESPN link no longer works. Write to ESPN and perhaps they will give you a way to view the piece.

Technorati Tags -
Alexi Salamone -
Sports -
Sled Hockey -
ESPN -

Alexi Salamone to be on ESPN!

Update - This post was written before the ESPN SportsCenter Show. The video is now available at ESPN Motion (for how long I don't know) but it does need a high speed connection. It will not work with dialup. Click on the Top Videos button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If You Like Sports Pass This News On!

Those of you that have followed my blog for a while might have seen my posts on the Special Olympics and Alexi Salamone - For those of you who missed it here is a quick synopsis of who Alexi is and the link to the previous post.

Alexi Salamone was born in the Ukraine 14 months after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. - Born with deformed legs, Salamone was placed in an overflowing orphanage. Both legs were amputated when he was 4. - Susan and Joseph Salamone of Buffalo, N.Y., adopted Alexi and Tatiana and at age 6&7.

Now, he helped win the Bronze medal on the U.S. sled-hockey Paralympian team.

For my two previous posts regarding Alexi click here - and - click here -
Now there is this update on Alexi:

Alexi Salamone Feature to Appear on
ESPN's "SportsCenter" May 7

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - ESPN will run a feature story on Alexi Salamone (Grand Island, N.Y.), a member of the bronze medal-winning 2006 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team, on both the Sunday morning (10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST) and Sunday evening (11:00 p.m.-12:30 a.m. EST) editions of "SportsCenter" May 7.

Salamone, an 18-year-old forward who was born in Russia and had his legs amputated as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, competed in his first Paralympic Winter Games in Torino. In addition to coming home with a bronze medal, he came back with the distinction of being the team's leading scorer (six points) and set-up man (four assists) in the Paralympic tournament.

The Sunday evening edition of SportsCenter will re-air on Monday morning from 5:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. EST.

For more about Salamone and the entire 2006 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team, visit usparalympics.org.

Please pass this time sensitive news on to anyone that needs to be inspired and uplifted!!!

Update: I don't think the link will any longer enable you to see the 2006 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. You might try to write to the organization and see if they sell cd's... You can check the ParalympicsportTV link and see what they are showing.

Technorati Tags -
Alexi Salamone -
Sports -
ESPN -

TV Sports on Your Computer! Paralympics Have Started

I mentioned a few days ago the Paralympics are being televised from Torino Italy. - I found out through an online friend whose son is a Paralympian on the U.S. sled-hockey team.

- Alexi Salamone -

Note the blade he is sitting on. Not only do the players have to whack the puck across the ice they have to do it while balancing the sled on that narrow blade

The paralympics have been running for 30 years now. I think it is amazing that we can watch the ceremony and sporting events through our computers. Narrowstep.TV is playing 100 hours of the events. - 10MAR06 to 19MAR06 -

Might need to use IE or get plug ins for Firefox...

Click here to view the Paralympics or click on the title above.

To learn more about the Paralympics
Click here to check out their home page.

Technorati Tags -
Paralympics -
Sports -
Olympics -