Leaves of Turf is a game-by-game, season-long series of football verse by TWER poet lAUreate Amorak Huey. His first poem can be found here, his second here, his third here, his fourth here, his fifth here. This week, he turns to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who coined the term “suspension of disbelief,” a handy phrase indeed when discussing Kentucky football.
Kubla Khantucky
Or, a vision of Auburn revenge.
Game 6, at Kentucky, Oct. 9, 2010
In Lexington did Adolph Rupp
A basketball school decree:
Where hoops were sacred and took up
Budgets, filled seats with butts.
This roundball thinking might make sense
In some other conference,
But not here, not in the SEC –
Where stadiums blossom ’round the South,
Where football coaches hold the clout,
Where snap counts and drumlines ring out
A season’s soundtrack in the autumn air
Not shoes squeaking on some gym floor.
Oh, sure, Bear coached these Cats,
And so did Curry, as if we Auburn fans need
One more reason to be irritated at
Last season’s ridiculous defeat.
It tweaked our sense of right and wrong,
Not to mention sent our season down a long
And ugly second half. But oh! Our new quarterback
Is a dancing and glorious vision in blue
And orange! He haunts free safeties’ dreams,
He throws, he runs, he brings a gleam
To Malzahn’s eye. UK, beware of No. 2!
But Newton’s not our only weapon with a knack
For changing games. Meet Fairley, Bynes and Dyer.
Watch out for Adams, Ziemba, Blake.
I could go on listing names of guys I like –
Those who play with that Auburn fire.
Instead I’ll tell you what I predict:
Auburn wins – and it won’t be close.
Tigers grab this game by the nose,
Leave those Wildcats with wounds to lick,
Their fans longing for Midnight Madness.
Fine, we don’t have your hoops success,
But this week we’ll have Cam’s terrific smile,
And a 6-0 start – and that will last us for a while.
…
Amorak Huey didn’t go to Auburn, but he did have a fake Auburn ID so he could sit in the Jordan-Hare student section throughout his college years. A graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, Amorak spent fifteen years as a newspaper reporter and editor at papers in Florida, Kentucky and Michigan. Two years ago, he left his job as assistant sports editor at The Grand Rapids Press to take a position teaching writing at Grand Valley State University. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Western Michigan University, and his poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals. He lives in East Grand Rapids, Mich., with his wife and two children. You can find him online at www.amorakhuey.net.
Graphic assistance by Mr. Justin Lee.
[Ed. note – Watch the incomparable Louisa Haigh expound upon the opening line of Coleridge’s famous poem here.]
And mid this tumult Cameron heard from far
Thousands of voices hollering War
Eagle.
Great job as usual, Mr. Huey.