Like many others, I am deeply saddened today over the death of my dear friend Bob Hershon. Bob was smart, funny, and generous. He was also a wonderful poet. Bob was the co-founder of Hanging Loose magazine and press, and helped bring the work of hundreds of writers (including me) to light. He was beloved by many, and earned that love through his great generosity of spirit. Here is a poem by Bob's from last August. It may very well be one of his last poems, but like all his work it is characterized by his warmth, humor, wisdom, and literary genius —- Terence Winch.
Chatter
I did the Saturday puzzle on Sunday and
the Sunday puzzle on Saturday and I
watched a thousand hours of cops and robbers
when my friend assigned me the task of writing
a baseball poem, since right now there is no
baseball except in memory so I thought of
the Miracle Mets and then the Boys of Summer
but they both seemed frayed from overuse and I
began to think of the teams of my boyhood, call them
the Boys of Early Spring—Eddie Stanky and Pete Reiser
and Cookie Lavagetto, Kirby Higbe and Ed Head and that perfect
baseball name, Dixie Walker, brother to Harry the Hat Walker,
and remembered more as a bigot who wouldn’t play with Jackie Robinson
than as an outfielder, but I didn’t know that when I was
ten and we had the only television set at 946 Bushwick Avenue
and I watched the games by myself with a bag of candy corn
the cheapest loose candy Woolworth’s sold, assuming
the Dodgers and I would grow old together (twelve, fourteen, beyond)
and wondering why all baseball announcers had Southern accents
and now the rich players and the even richer owners have finally
decided to play some baseball and I guess I’ll slump down and
stare at the games, by myself again, without candy corn
but maybe with a sip or two of Scotch
Original note: Robert Hershon has written 15 books of poems, most recently End of the Business Day and Freeze Frame. He's won two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and three from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Hershon has been co-editor of Hanging Loose Press since its founding in 1966. >>
Ed. note: "Chatter" was the "pick of the week" for August 30, 2020, and it elicited enthusiastic and charming comments from Bill Zavatsky, Michael Lally, and Jack Andreson, among others. I woke today to the sad news that Bob died in his sleep last night. Our hearts go out to Donna and Lizzie. –DL