Fun With Poetry

I realize it's been a while since I've posted some poetry. Here a few poems I've written for class. Right now, I'm also working on a set of poems tentatively called "The Georgia Series." More info to come as more poems are written.

The first set of poems are Haiku. Yes, the plural of "haiku" is "haiku." Haiku are poems about nature and such. Some of these may crossover into the "senryu" style poems. Senryu poems are in the same format as haiku but are about human nature instead of the natural world.

Rain drops heavily
standing alone soaking wet
got stood up again

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February ends
snow melts uncovering grass
warm weather will come

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Short days dominate
old children in snowball fights
winter vacation

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New day sun rises
blank paper and pen on desk
first poem this year

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Colored leaves will fall
don’t want to be in class now
only the first day

The second set of poems are cinquain poems. Cinquain poems go 2-4-6-8-2 syllables per line.


Writer’s Block

I can’t
figure out why
writer’s block got me down.
Still not sure what to write about.
I’m screwed.

I Hate Saying Sorry

I hate
saying sorry.
It wasn’t my damn fault.
He was the one who did you wrong.
Not me.

Girl On The Roof

She’s the
girl on a roof.
Staring up at the stars
wishing for her dreams to come true.
They won’t.

That's it for now, more to come sometime soon.

Losing Sucks! Losing To The Cardinals Is Borderline Depressing!

I absolutely HATE losing to the Cardinals. Losing to the Cardinals is the absolute worse feeling in the world for me. --Luis C. Medina, 4/20/07

Didn't we just go through this on Friday?

I thought so. I guess the Cubs didn't get the memo. I hate losing to the Cardinals more than anything in the world. Might I be exaggerating? Maybe. But it's not just losing to the Cards, it's the way that they lose. The Cubs have found so many different ways to lose ball games, I shouldn't be surprised---but whenever you think you've seen it all---the Cubs find another new way to lose.

So Friday they lost 2-1. That sucked because Ted Lilly pitched a hell of a ball game, and again received no run support. The runs came for Jason Marquis on Saturday in the 6-0 victory. And again, the runs came Sunday....and were wasted because of one Wade Miller.

After watching this game, the only thing I can take away from this game is that Wade Miller sucks at life and has sucked at life ever since he was an Astro and Larry Dierker burned him out. Why couldn't he burn out Oswalt?!?!? Or Lidge?!?!? Nooo....the one guy the Cubs end up landing sucks! Wait, that makes sense.

Anyway, Miller sucks and needs to be demoted somehow. His fastball peaks at 89 and unless you're Greg Maddux, it's not a good thing. It's time to bring up one of the youngsters. I know Jeff Samardizija isn't ready and probably won't be ready until July, but there are other options.

• How about Angel Guzman? He was pitching well before being demoted for Felix Pie.
• How about Sean Marshall? Marshall showed at times he could be a serviceable starter.
• Wonder what happened to Springfield native and life long Cubs fan Ryan O'Malley? He's still pitching in the Cubs system?
• What about Carlos Marmol? Or Juan Mateo?

You know what all of those guys have in common? They're all better options than trotting out Wade Friggin' Miller out there each time. Oh and Miller's ERA after 3 starts....10.54. Guess what Cubs fans? You're not gonna win a lot of games with a 10.54 ERA.

And that's the heartbreaking part of it all. Lilly comes out Friday and throws an absolute gem, and really has proven to the critics that (at this point) he's worth the $10 million per year that Jim Hendry gave him while on that EKG machine. And what does Lilly get for his effort? A big fat 'L.' Then Sunday, Miller comes out and lays a big fat egg. He would have gotten the 'L' had the Cubs offense not bailed him out (again.) It was the second time this week.

Long story short, I'm sick of Wade Miller's bullshit. That's why I said Thursday when I previewed this weekend, that the two most important games were Friday and Saturday. Those were the two must win games because I knew in my heart-of-hearts that Wade F. Miller was gonna blow it. He did, and again, the Cubs lose a pivotal home series against a division rival. THE DIVISION RIVAL! ARGH IT SICKENS ME!!!

You want a positive? I'll show you a positive. The Cubs scored 15 runs in the last two games.....and not one was driven in by Alfonso Soriano. That's a positive sign in my eyes.

That's it for now. I'm tired and have poetry to write. Go Cubs, the best is yet to come. I hope.

Yay! Playoff Basketball!!!

As much as April means baseball to me, for a long time in my childhood, basketball shared the spring spotlight. How could an avid baseball fan such as myself split my sports world showing attention to a team not playing in Wrigley Field? The easiest answer: I grew up in the Michael Jordan era.

As a child of the Jordan era (and Chicago native) the Bulls took center stage from April to June. It's as if nothing mattered in the regular season, the Bulls always turned it on in the playoffs.

And how could they not? They had Michael Jordan, the greatest of all time. They had Scottie Pippen, the greatest complimentary player of all time. And they had Phil Jackson, one of the greatest coaches of all time. Phil did an amazing job taking some of the biggest ego's in sports and molding them together to bring championships to Chicago.

The first three championships featured Horace Grant, John Paxson and a deep bench of role players. The second set of three championships featured rebounding machine Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc and another deep bench. The constants in those two teams are Jordan, Pippen & Coach Phil.

After Jordan and Co. left, the Bulls disappeared off the face of the basketball earth. They got bad, real bad. They were constantly one of the worst teams in basketball. They couldn't attract any impact players through the free agent market, they failed to pick up young talent through the draft and their coaches weren't doing their jobs.

Enter John Paxson who replaced Jerry Krause as GM. Krause is best known as the architect of the Bulls championship teams. Paxson rebuilt this team from scratch. He dumped high price, high ego players in an attempt to build team chemistry. Next, he dumped all the remaining links of the Krause era--players, coaches, all of them. Then, Paxson did what Krause couldn't do and built through the draft.

In 2003, he drafted PG Kirk Hinirch out of Kansas. In 2004, he drafted Ben Gordon (UConn) and Luol Deng and Chris Duhon (Duke). Paxson's draft strategy was to draft players out of perennial NCAA powerhouse schools with a pedigree of success. Hinrich appeared in two final fours. Deng and Duhon went deep in the tourney under Coach K at Duke. Gordon won a Nat'l Championship in his junior year at UConn.

In free agency, the Bulls added Andres Nocioni who won a gold medal in the Olympics while playing for Team Argentina. He was also successful overseas.

In 2006, the Bulls stepped away from their draft strategy a bit. They chose Tyrus Thomas (LSU) and Thabo Sefolosha (Switz.). Thomas was chosen with the second pick (acquired from NY Knicks for Eddy Curry) and possesses amazing athletic ability and draws comparisons to Suns forward Shawn Marion. Sefolosha starred in the European basketball leagues and is another superb athlete who is versatile enough to play three positions.

Again, Paxson hit the free agent market this summer doing what Krause couldn't do--land the big free agent when he signed C Ben Wallace away from the rival Detroit Pistons.

So the Bulls look for their first playoff series win since the Jordan era again. Last year they took the eventual champion Miami Heat to six games. This Bulls team could be better with their additions while the Heat bring back basically the same team from last year. And the Bulls (despite having a lower seed) will get home court advantage because of their better record.

So break out the black shoes and the black socks. It's time for some Bulls playoff basketball.

Game One Goes To The Birds :-(

This wasn't only an introduction to the Cubs/Cards series for Lou Piniella, it was also an introduction to Cub-dumb.

Cub-dumb, also known as "being Cubbed" is an act when players decide to revert to the crap that they truly are, do stupid things in the field or on the basepaths....in short, Cub-dumb is baseball retardation. In the Cubs 2-1 loss to the Cardinals there was plenty of retardation to go around.

There were several strange plays and they all cost the Cubs in the end. They took a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning behind a run scoring single by Aramis Ramirez. Next, Mark DeRosa grounded into a double play to end the inning. But it wasn't a normal 6-4-3. DeRosa was safe when the second basemen's throw pulled Albert Pujols off the first base bag. DeRosa was tagged out when he entered fair territory while avoiding Pujols' tag.

In the 7th inning, Henry Blanco failed to move runners on first and second when he popped a bunt that was fielded by catcher Yadier Molina and almost turned into a triple play. Blanco was called out at the plate, and the Cubs rally was stifled after that when Cesar Izturis struck out looking and Daryle Ward struck out swinging at three splitters that weren't even close to being strikes.

The Cubs had a chance to make some noise in the bottom of the 9th inning. DeRosa hit a one out single and was pinch run in favor of Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno moved to second after Jacques Jones walk---kinda. Cedeno, off with the pitch, slid past the bag while shortstop David Eckstein kept the tag on Cedeno. The umpire initially called Cedeno safe until Tony LaRussa came out to argue the call, which was eventually overturned with the help of the umpiring crew and LaRussa insisting that he'd buy the first round at Sluggers after the game.

The Cub rally ended meekly as Matt Murton popped out on the first pitch he saw.

Sounds like the Cubs lost more than the Cardinals won, doesn't it? The Cards scored on a Preston Wilson two-run homer in the top of the 7th. That sucked, because I was watching the game in the student center and the Cubs were just rolling around. And in typical Cub fashion, as soon as you turn away...SMACK!!!

Preston F***ing Wilson. You've gotta be f***ing kidding me.

Besides Wilson's home run, Ted Lilly (1-2) was brilliant striking out six in seven innings while only allowing four hits. Lilly looks like he's gonna be that pitcher that gets NO run support despite good stuff.

Braden Looper (3-1) pitched well, especially knowing that I would be more than 300 miles south of Wrigley Field as I spent most of my afternoon taking a test. Nearly everyone by now should know my past interactions with Mr. Looper. Looptey-loop struck out five in seven innings while picking up the win.

If my mom was here, she'd tell me something to the extent of 'the sun will rise tomorrow."

If it does, game two will take place as Jason Marquis will take the mound against his former mates. If Marquis knows what's good for him, he pitches a complete game, no-hitter and hits a couple of dingers.

As you can tell, I don't like losing. I absolutely HATE losing to the Cardinals. Losing to the Cardinals is the absolute worse feeling in the world for me.

LIST PART I: Things that are bad, but not as bad as losing to the Cardinals.

• Losing to Duke (UNC; basketball)
• Losing to Ohio State (Michigan; football)
• Losing to the White Sox
• Rejection
• Heartbreak (over a girl)

Yeah, I said it. Being rejected by a girl, not as painful as losing to the Cardinals in my eyes. And heartbreak? Not even close, a few drinks coupled with a night of poetry writing can get me through any heartbreak. Getting over a loss by the Cubs at the hands of the Cardinals---that's just on the brink of depressing.

LIST PART II: Issues with Lou Piniella....because we haven't seen eye to eye sometimes this year.

• Why is Cliff Floyd batting second?
• Why wasn't Felix Pie starting in center field against the righty Looper?
• Why wasn't Pie used in the 9th inning as a defensive replacement? Either he or JJ could have caught that ball that Floyd missed on a dive that Jim Edmonds turned from a single into a triple.
• If you weren't gonna use Pie as a pinch hitter or as a defensive replacement---why didn't you use Pie as the pinch runner instead of Ronny Cedeno? Pie is faster and a better base stealer than Cedeno.
• Where was Michael Barrett? Last I checked, he hit a game winning Grand Slam against Jason Isringhausen last year against the Cardinals. Mikey B. is a better option off the bench than The Big Murt, who is struggling without constant playing time.
• I will give Lou credit for arguing the 9th inning call---good to see the manager awake at the wheel (not that's not a jab at LaRussa's DUI....but it should be!)

Hopefully the Cubs will get it right in the next two games, or else I (and the rest of Cubdom) have to face humiliation at the hands of the Cardinals fans on campus.