Monday Night - Not Just Any Night

Slice of LIfe Tuesday - April 5, 2011

“Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” ~Charles Simic

For some of you, last night was just another Monday, but for others, including myself, it was the NCAA championship basketball game. I’m not really a big sports fan, but when late February rolls around, I begin watching a few college games, including my own alma mater, the University of Missouri at Columbia, and I have special thoughts of my mother, who loved all basketball, but particularly during this month. I always start rooting for the Tigers, and then watch to see if they make the 64 teams, and when they do, I’m excited and hopeful. They haven’t ever done very well, so I then move on to find other teams to watch, to learn about the top players, see if I can predict their chances. In the last years of my mother’s life, she and I spent a lot of time on the phone talking about the games. She wasn’t able to leave her home often, so the basketball games on tv gave her much pleasure, and we had lots of fun talking about the tournament.

This year, March madness was really ‘mad’, for it was also the Slice of Life challenge. On numerous evenings, I found myself slicing along with watching basketball games. It was quite a fun month. (I must also let you know that I also did go to work, clean, cook, read, and have fun with my family some of the time, too!)

At the blog, A Year of Reading, they lately told of a new book by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Nancy Doniger, called Lemonade (And Other Poems Squeezed From a Single Word). In the book, Raczka uses the letters of the title word of each poem to make the words for that poem. I thought I’d try it, with the word (game) that has given me so much pleasure this past month, along with the slice of life.

BASKETBALL

Tall

tale-

bat

ball.

Take

fall.

Set

task.

Beat

last.

All

Bask!!