Stanzas for Seniors

Theodore Roethke once said that bad poets imitate, and good poets steal. While the same doesn’t necessarily hold true for bloggers, since this post is mostly a series of short poems I feel like this makes it OK to steal a tradition from my friends at MGoBlog, where each senior is commemorated on Senior Day with his own haiku.

Because I can’t get over the idea it would be bad form to rip Brian off entirely, though, WBE’s tributes are in quatrains. The idea’s the same, though: this is the final time we will watch these players take the field in our stadium and offer us everything they have. Got to honor them somehow.

Antonio Coleman

Two-armed again, it’s fair to say
there’s reasonable cause
for all to fear you now the way
that Bradley Sowell does

Clayton Crofoot

The fact I can’t think of a time
I’ve thought about you tells
me just how well you’ve done the work
without which so much fails.

Clinton Durst

Against the ’08 Vols ’twas clear
that only Saturn V
and punts into the stratosphere
were what kept hope alive.

Walt McFadden

You don’t just lead by example, you
don’t only “walk the walk,”
The good thing’s that we see it’s true:
your play’s good as the talk.

Gabe McKenzie

We’ll always have the Kansas St.
game-winning late TD,
we’ll always have a laugh about
that silly Jarrett Lee

Woody Parramore

I wish this was a movie, so
with seconds left you’d leap
and intercept the Tide’s last throw–
men everywhere would weep

Jake Ricks

A man as broad as a grizzly bear,
a wall without a crack,
and strong enough (we know) to wear
a Mountaineer on his back.

Ben Tate

Already wrote him a sonnet to say
that yeah, he’s just that great,
so no more praise to offer today
to the best back in the state.

Chris Todd

We thank you, Chris: I have to think
without you we would shudder
at watching the S.S. Malzahn sink,
a boat without its rudder.

Tommy Trott

Called you “Not a blocking tight end,”
and still, I think that’s true:
a blocking, leading, catching tight end–
a winning tight end–are you.