"Lining-Up (for Charles North)" [by David Lehman]
This poem was inspired by a dream I had in which Amy Gerstler and I were on the same softball team, with her in lead-off position playing shortstop. Charles North has written many great “line ups” – for example, an all-philosopher team as well as teams consisting exclusively of diseases, vegetables, and famous couples – so I thought I would dedicate the poem to him, a confirmed Gemini, born on June 9. Charles tells me he is happy to be in the lineup, though he has reservations about the wisdom of playing him at first base. “I’m a righty,” he points out. But so were Gil Hodges and Steve Garvey, no? But we took his reservations seriously, and are (as you will see) swirtching him to right field and Tony Towle to first base for game two of the series..
Lining Up
for Charles North
SS Amy Gerstler
2B David Lehman
3B David Shapiro (L)
LF David Trinidad
IB Tony Towle
RF Charles North *
CF Elaine Equi
C Ted Berrigan
P Ron Padgett (L)
Relief pitcher Vincent Katz (ROY)**
PH NL / DH AL Jerome Sala ****
General manager: Harry Mathews
Front office wise men: Bob Hershon, Mitch Sisskind
Scouts: Edwin Denby, Tim Dlugos, Maxine Chernoff, Paul Hoover, Angela Ball
Manager: Paul Violi
Bench coach: John Ashbery
First base Koch: Kenneth Coach
Third base coach: Frank O'Hara
Trainer: James Schuyler
Pitching coach: Joseph Ceravolo
Batting coach: Larry Fagin
Bullpen coach: Bernadette Mayer
Press Relations: Terence Winch
TV announcers: Paul Auster (and a former player to be named later)
Radio play-by-play persons: Phillip Lopate, Andrei Codrescu, Anne Waldman
Broadway adaptation: Lehman Engel, Kenward Elmslie
Uniform design: Joe Brainard
Critic: Tom Clark
L Left-hander
* To be played by Chris Noth in the TV version.
** Winner, rookie of the year award.
*** Switch hitter; to be deployed as a pinch hitter in the National League and as a designated hitter in the American League.
Posted by The Best American Poetry on June 09, 2020 at 12:01 PM in Adventures of Lehman, Birthday Poems, Feature | Permalink
From the archive; first posted June 09, 2020