Steve Kelen wrote:-
Goolagong was the original
real young spunk on the circuit
& I'd just like to say, on the other hand,
Rafter is beating Popp
so who cares about 'the big pooh'!
foot fault
Hugh
----- Original Message -----
From: S. K. Kelen <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 11:43 PM
Subject: A tennis poem
The Week of the Australian Open
"The ball's never in till it lands", Tony Trabert
Fred Stolle rides the Green Eagle home
Dream implanted in tennis fans' minds in 1973
Newk served with his backhand
& broke the laws of tennis...
the message from the outer limits
lay wherever a machine's heart beat,
a beach for neurones to frolic & surf
extra room to bounce a ball, centre court
where everyone gets to the final
& there was the message from Fred Stolle
riding the green eagle home, prophesying
a Dynasty of Martinas.
The world's a different place
since Fred Perry left the musketeers.
Goolagong was the original
real young spunk on the circuit
or maybe Virginia Wade, anyway
great legs have always covered the base line
run down a loose service, charged the net
and leapt to take the high smash.
Amazing names like Laver and Agassi,
Borg and Sabatini.
And some of them break through
the television rave, with a beer and a smoke
before the game-only at the amateur level!
The week of the Australian Open is
the hot week to discover meaning
because everything that happens
in life happens in sport
and the other way? Every year
during the week of the Australian Open
the weather's a scorcher
-39sC all day all week, it's great &
tough to play in-stinking hot
all over the country people
stay indoors, draw curtains
turn on the tv in the morning
and then in the evening
go to the local courts
to experience the Esoterics of Spin,
keeping the ball on a string
practise magic tennis-
shots kick inside out
loop great parabolas, speed
and spin ecstasy.
Wonderfully selfish thing being
in your own world, launching a ball
into another-the beauty of western
life, a tennis ball flies through space
opens intuitive metaphysic
the bright side of the Earth-
Venus in blue, Serena in red.
It's good to be rampant on the court
and forget all the schoolbook stuff
for example, to accept it's
too late to make Wimbledon
is accepting destiny, wisdom in tennis.
Out on the court all is Zen
Fred Stolle rides the green eagle home.
With heart, hit forehand backhand volley serve.
Hit ball hard, hit it sweet-
on Sundays I play like a knocked-out top seed
with spirit come the day of the inside-out forehand.
S. K. KELEN
(from: Shimmerings (Wollongong: Five Islands Press, 2000)
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