The "Lancaster Poetry At Its Best" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in front of one of my favorite sculptures, known as Common Thread by Derek Parker, that just happens to be in front of one of my favorite stadiums, Clipper Magazine Stadium, that just happens the be the home of one of my favorite athletic endeavors.  For over a dozen years I have been making visits to "The Clip" to watch guys run around a grass-covered diamond, striking square pieces of fabric with metal cleats in hopes of making it to the promised land called home plate.  

The Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
It is home to the Lancaster Barnstormers professional base-
ball team which is an independent league.  On the right
bottom of the photo is the sculpture that leads to a poem
etched into a metal plate known as "Our Ballpark".  Click to enlarge.

Hey, pretty good, wasn't it?  What I am really writing about today is baseball and poetry.  Seems that in front of "The Clip" is a red metal sculpture that looks something like a caterpillar and attached to what could be the head or the tail is a piece of poetry titled "Our Ballpark".  The poem was penned by Lancasterian Le Hinton who is not only a poet, but a teacher and lecturer.  I have read his poem many times since it was added to the landscape outside "The Clip" a few years ago.  And, I wish I had written it!  I really could have written it ... had I been a poet!  But since I am a blogger, well that didn't happen.  "Our Ballpark" tells the story of my life except for the fact that "The Clip" was a railroad yard when I was a child.  As I read Le's poem, I see my brother and myself on a baseball diamond in "Anywhere, USA" learning math, art, patriotism and the traits of faith and opportunity. See what you think when you read Le's poem which follows:

 Our Ballpark

This is the place where my father educated us.

an open-air school of tutelage and transformation.

It is here where we first learned

to count to three, then later to calculate the angle

of a line drive bounding off the left field wall.

We studied the geometry and appreciated the ballet

of third to second to first.  a triple play.

This moving canvas of color was our art school.

He gave us lessons on impressionistic blue skies and white lines.

the realism of brown dirt and green grass.

and the tangible abstraction of red.  white.

and blue waving beyond the outfield wall.

We committed to memory his catechism of morality:

faith and opportunity. fairness and hard work.

We learned that if we are still playing, there is still hope.

However, what we came to understand most is that sometimes

for your team. for your family

a sacrifice is the most important play of the game.

I love the way Mr. Hinton writes and have read quite a few of his works.  A bit about Le Hinton might be in order at this point in my story.  Mr. Hinton is the author of five poetry collections including The Language of Moisture and Light which was published in 2014.  His work was nominated for the 2016 Best of the Net as well as the 2016 Pushcart Prize.  His poem "Epidemic" was honored in 2014 by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and his poem "No Doubt About It (I Gotta Get Another Hat)" was selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry.  

Poet Le Hinton from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

His most recent manuscript, A Chorus for Cotton, was a finalist for "The Best Prize for People of Color" from Big Lucks.  I think by now you get the hint that Le is a first-class poet.  I'm not sure if his poetry would be classified as Narrative or Free Verse, but to me it doesn't really matter?   Le was born in nearby Harrisburg and grew up with six siblings as well as a mother that read aloud to them all the time.  By 16 he began writing his own poems and while in college at St. Joe's in Philadelphia he was published in the university newspaper.  In 1982 he moved to Lancaster and now spearheads the monthly Lancaster Poetry Exchange event at the local Barnes and Noble.  He is known as a "cornerstone of the Lancaster literary community."  His work has appeared in magazines such as Watershed, Gargoyle, Literary Chaos, Haggard and Halloo as well as Bent Pin Quarterly.  As far as I'm concerned, my favorite Le Hinton poem is the one that brings a smile to my face every time I head to a ballgame at "The Clip."  Thank you Mr Hinton for your beautiful work which brings back so many memories from my past.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.