| Ballgloves and poetry |
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| Written by Brian Rich -Argonaut | ||||
| Friday, 20 January 2006 | ||||
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Ron McFarland once gave up baseball for writing. Now he’s writing about baseball. The University of Idaho English professor’s latest poetry chapbook, “At the Ballpark,” recounts his past and present in 22 poems that offer personal insights into the great American pastime. McFarland and baseball go way back. He graduated from high school in 1960, while he was still playing baseball. He continued to play into junior college, but when he got the chance to take over as editor at the school’s newspaper, he gave up baseball and took up writing. “You get to a point where you know how good you are and you know how good you aren’t,” he says. Years went by before McFarland gave any attention to baseball in his writing. Then, in 2000, his first chapbook of baseball poems came out, though only about 100 copies were printed and it has been out of print for several years. Now that he’s gotten more recognition, he decided to write some new poems, and with permission of the former press company, reprint the poems from his first book. “At the Ballpark” was published by Pudding House Press of Columbus, Ohio, which had an established relationship with McFarland because of some previous work he had done. “When I came out with this chapbook of baseball poems, I sent them to the editor of the press and asked if she was interested in them,” he says. “She was excited about seeing a book so she went ahead and published it.” McFarland has had around 20 books published, but only a few are about baseball. His last baseball poem collection was titled “Ballgloves” and featured 10 of the poems in “At the Ballpark.” Baseball, though, is not the only thing McFarland writes about. He’s had several books published, including “Catching First Light,” which includes essays and stories about Idaho. He had another book published just a few months before “At the Ballpark,” titled “Confessions of a Night Librarian and Other Embarrassments,” about his time in Florida as a librarian. He says his inspiration for the poems comes from past and present events and from baseball in general. The first baseball poem he wrote was called “Ballgloves,” like the first book, and was written about a time his daughter forgot his favorite baseball glove in a field and it was permanently lost. “That inspired a poem,” McFarland says. “There’s poems like that that are inspired by specific events. They made me think of when I’d been playing ball in the past.”  Add as favorites (20) | Views: 1375
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