It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
– Ernest Hemingway, American novelist

Black is for mourning the end of the season, alas, cut short.

Blessings and curses. It was a blessing perhaps that instead of watching the decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series between the Oakland A’s and the Detroit Tigers, I was at the World Premiere of Lunafest 2013/2014 in San Francisco last night. On the other side of the Bay, however, it was yet another demonstration of the “curious curse of the Oakland A’s,” as laid out in the New York Times.

It’s the end of the season for me. But after a moment of silence for a season cut too soon, I say goodnight to Oaktown and to baseball with poems by Marjorie Maddox and Tom Clark, respectively.

Grand Slam
Dreams brimming over,
childhood stretched out in legs,
this is the moment replayed on winter days
when frost covers the field,
when age steals away wishes.
Glorious sleep that seeps back there
to the glory of our baseball days.

(from Rules of the Game III, 2009)

Antique Edwardian handbag and reclaimed vintage necklace.

Baseball and Classicism
Every day I peruse the box scores for hours
Sometimes I wonder why I do it
Since I am not going to take a test on it
And no one is going to give me money

The pleasure’s something like that of codes
Of deciphering an ancient alphabet say
So as brightly to picturize Eurydice
In the Elysian Fields on her perfect day

The day she went 5 for 5 against Vic Raschi

(from Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems, Coffee House Press, 2006)

M.E. Moore reclaimed vintage necklace against lace (Gorgeous & Green, Berkeley, CA).

When your back’s to the season, it’s time to hang it up. Goodnight, Oaktown! We’ll be back next year!