Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Luke Brindley’s blues

Luke Brindley appears to be a rather accomplished acoustic guitar player — singer-songwriter stuff, playing solo and singing love songs. His style is familiar, nothing that breaks new ground, but listenable and very real feeling.

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Doggie diary: The ballad of Rosie and Sophie Summer comes early

Rosie relaxes after playing with my nephews in the yard. It has been a gorgeous afternoon — bright blue sky, a Mets win, good food and family.

And, later, Graham Parker in concert.

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Long day ends badly

It was a very busy day with meetings, troubleshooting and having to get stuff done around the house (company coming tomorrow). But the lawnmower is dead — yikes — and now it appears that the kaletblog domain has expired and has fallen into someone else’s hands. Grrrrrrr. I’m going to bed.

A Mets fan’s lament

What is it they say about baseball? It’s 90 percent pitching and the other half is defense? (OK, they is Yogi, but….)

This explains the last two Met games — awful starts and that Daniel Murphy flop in the outfield.

Here is what I’ll call my Calvin Trillin moment (after the famed Deadline Poet):

A Mets fan’s Lament
(To the tune of “Levon” by Elton John)

Livan sells cartoon balloons in town
He prays his pitches stay low
Because he needs the job
And the batters send them to finest stands around
He was once a Cuban refugee on a fishing raft
and the New York Post says his arm is dead
and the hits keep coming
El Duque’s half brother should just go away
And the pitcher was Livan

Tuesday Poetry Podcast: Sonnet for Bob Gibson

This week’s poetry podcast is of an older baseball poem — “Sonnet for Bob Gibson” — that appeared in the Elysian Fields Quarterly in 2002.