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Photo Play: Golf & Greens

By Heather Eure 15 Comments

Golf and Greens Poetry Prompt

“To me, the most confusing part about golf is that I don’t know whether I’d rather actually be playing golf, or sitting on the green composing haikus about the landscaping.” —Jarod Kintz

Every course is unique and offers a different challenge. Each a picturesque landscape of rolling fairways, water features, and neatly manicured greens. It is sport enveloped by nature.

A visual feast for photographers.

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here is a poem from Prasanta we enjoyed:

White bell-shaped blooms bend slightly
Paying homage to depths beneath

Crisp grass forged upward
Through a deep darkness
By a cataclysmic split
Of a tiny seed

The ground brims
With tiny creatures wiggling
rummaging about the vastness
of open space, displaced momentarily
by bursting stalks

The ground beneath burgeoning,
Hopeful seeds trembling,
splitting sides,
seeping upward,
awaiting their glorious day–
and did you catch it, before it died?
Before it was chipped away,
Before it faded?

And life is like this,
This wait, this wait of spring
This waiting for bloom
This glancing at the cusp
Of something glorious
This waiting of–

All around me, the ground is plucked
And picked and upturned and raked
Struggling to shake off
the shreds of winter

And I have been waiting that long
For the land of dripping green.

—by Prasanta Verma

PHOTO PLAY: Take a golfer’s eye view of grass, the same manner in which they “read” a green. Shoot your photograph low, maybe placing a golf ball or tee in the foreground to add interest. If you want to take photos on a local golf course, be sure to seek permission first. A public driving range is a good place to photograph a line of golfers practicing their swing. You can even visit a miniature golf course and snap a few lighthearted shots of the dreaded windmill hole.

***

NOTE TO POETS: Looking for your Monday poetry prompt? On Photo Play weeks, it’s right here. Find inspiration from the photo in the post and respond with a poem. Leave your poem in the comment box. We’ll be reading. :)

Photo by Nany B. Agyei. Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Heather Eure.

________________________

Sometimes we feature your poems in Every Day Poems, with your permission of course. Thanks for writing with us!

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  • Author
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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
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  • Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018

Filed Under: Blog, Golf & Greens, Golf Poems, Photo Play, Photography prompts, poetry, poetry prompt, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Sandra Heska King says

    April 13, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    I’ve never been on a golf course. I’d probably be like Jarod until I got bonked in the head with a stray ball.

    Prasanta, I love this: “Life is like this… This waiting of.” Well, I really love the whole thing.

    Fore!

    Flopped on the fairway,

    with wonder teed and hope holed,

    I saw stars. Not fair.

    Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      April 16, 2015 at 1:35 am

      “with wonder teed and hope holed” -So fun, Sandra 🙂

      Reply
  2. Prasanta says

    April 13, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    Thank you for the wonderful surprise of featuring my poem here today! And thank you for the very kind words, Sandra! Since I’m not a golfer, either, I decided to focus more on the beautiful “greens” than the golf. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Dave Malone says

    April 14, 2015 at 6:38 am

    Course

    Nature is not the most difficult
    though hairy dog legs
    yield phantom rough
    and then looms April rain.
    But worse is the knock of silence
    on an interminable par five,
    haunting six hundred yards
    in barnyard dark. The dusky fairway
    rises and smells like fear
    you’ve always known.
    And then the time is only now.
    Pushing hands through hips,
    a declaration
    and hope that if not far,
    the shot is clean.

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      April 14, 2015 at 12:22 pm

      oooo, love 🙂

      Reply
      • Dave Malone says

        April 14, 2015 at 12:32 pm

        Thanks! Easily inspired by Prasanta’s poem and the great photo. 🙂

        Reply
        • Prasanta says

          April 15, 2015 at 6:09 pm

          Love your poem, Dave Malone. And your comment made my day brighter- thank you!

          Reply
          • Dave Malone says

            April 15, 2015 at 6:17 pm

            Thank you. And you are welcome, indeed. For “life is like this, /
            This wait, this wait of spring.”
            🙂

  4. Bethany Rohde says

    April 15, 2015 at 5:40 pm

    Is it your body that’s blocking the light?

    Across this lawn, a blacktop of shadow
    is cast between us. It asks to be travelled
    You cannot do it, you’re rooted–
    I will.

    My footfalls plod, plod this acre,
    –This darkness you did not intend,
    until we share each other’s air
    again

    How can you, Oak Tree of seventy,
    be both a shadow-source and a beacon?

    I continue on and you don’t stop me
    But through leaf-fingers, I hear whispers
    (now growing fainter)
    Sh- sh- shh

    Reply
    • Richard Maxson says

      April 16, 2015 at 6:04 am

      This is so very touching, Bethany! It is beautiful when a poem escapes its words.

      Reply
      • Bethany R. says

        April 16, 2015 at 11:05 am

        You found it touching, Richard? That means a lot to me. Thanks for letting me know.

        Reply
  5. Richard Maxson says

    April 16, 2015 at 5:49 am

    I know nothing about golf. This was inspired by L.L. Barkat’s line last week, “I never learned the words”

    That golf had it’s own language, I was also unaware before now. So this is a sort of jealous poem stack. Or as I chose to name it:

    Golferwocky
    (a, sort of, jealous poem stack)

    Chunk a fat shot?
    Better to waggle so
    you don’t whiff
    at the tee box.

    It’s not Road Hole!
    Prolonged pre-shot routines
    and plumb-bobs, as if
    it were Andrew’s linksland.

    Mind your tiers! Say it!
    No ideas but in swings.
    ‘Tis twichies and the yips
    will shank your sole.

    Untimely sky will trap
    a fried egg every time.
    Go for the bump and run.
    Keep your grooves clean.

    Fluffy lies, fluffy lies,
    only fluffy lies.
    You had me at Road Hole,
    you had me at Road Hole!

    Let us go then, you and I…
    Are you listening now,
    are you listening?
    I’ve got one word for you—balata!
     
    ***
    Glossary:
    Balata: A rubber-like substance used as a cover material for golf balls to increase spin.
    (also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk )
    Bump and Run: A pitch shot around the green in which the player hits the ball into a slope to deaden its speed before settling on the green and rolling towards the hole.
    Chunk: A poor shot caused by hitting the turf well behind the ball.
    Fat Shot: A description of a shot when the clubhead strikes the turf behind the ball.
    Fluffy Lie: A lie in which the ball rests atop the longish grass.
    Fried Egg: The slang term for a buried lie in the sand.
    Groove (equipment): The horizontal scoring lines on the face of the club that help impart spin on the ball.
    Groove: A description of a swing that consistently follows the same path, time after time.
    Links: The term for a course built on linksland, which is land reclaimed from the ocean.
    Plumb-bob: A method many players use to help them determine the amount a putt will break.
    Pre-Shot Routine: The actions a player takes from the time he selects a club until he begins the swing.
    Road Hole: The 17th hole at the Old Course at St. Andrews, one of the most difficult holes in the world.
    (also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyrP-pwDayE )
    Shank: When the ball is struck on the hosel of the club, usually sending it shooting off to the right.
    Sky: A high, short shot caused by the clubhead striking the underside of the ball. Also called a “pop-up.”
    Sole: The bottom of a club.
    Tee Box: The area where players tee to start a hole.
    Tier: A rise or level in a green or tee.
    Waggle: A motion or several motions designed to keep a player relaxed.
    Whiff: A complete miss. Also known as an “air ball.”
    Yips: A condition, generally believed to be psychological, which causes a player to lose control of his hands and club. In Great Britain, the condition is referred to as the “Twitchies.”

    Reply
  6. Bethany R. says

    April 18, 2015 at 2:29 am

    So many great lines here:

    “It’s not Rode Hole!”

    “Untimely sky will trap
    a fried egg every time.”

    “No ideas but in swings.”

    I don’t know a thing about golf, but I was intrigued throughout your poem.

    Thank you for sharing this with us, Richard. 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Photo Play: Golf & Greens - | Poets & W... says:
    April 13, 2015 at 11:18 am

    […] Golf & Greens Photo Play is an invitation to capture the picturesque landscape of rolling fairways, water features, and neatly manicured greens. Join us!  […]

    Reply
  2. Photo Play 2: Golf & Greens - says:
    April 22, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    […] to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here is a tournament-ready poem from Dave we […]

    Reply

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