Heroic Poems

Historic log cabin at Red Clay State Park, near Cleveland, Tennessee.

Anyone who writes in the Heroic Couplet form risks being compared to Dr. Suess, but there was a time when it was used to record history, celebrate heroic events, and even as a vehicle for satire. Here are a few of my poems written in that form. If you write, I urge you to give it a try.

A Chattanooga Lookout 

The Lookouts got their first shot at fame, 
a New York Yankees exhibition game. 

They signed Jackie Mitchell, a publicity stunt, 
but she pitched like a pro, not some sorry runt. 

The starter gave up a hit and a double. 
They sent Jackie in to heal this trouble. 

She struck out Babe Ruth, the third up to bat. 
She struck out Lou Gehrig, imagine that. 

Lazzeri, she walked, put a third man on base. 
The manager pulled her just to save face. 

The commissioner said that she had to go. 
Should women play baseball? He just said no. 

But Jackie played on in House of David fame. 
That barnstorming team won many a game. 

The men all wore beards and long hair to boot. 
She donned a fake beard; thought it was a hoot. 

She wasn’t afraid of a publicity stunt, 
but she pitched like a pro, not some sorry runt. 

Great Horned Owl

In Birds of America, their visage seems fierce.
In person, these birds can be much worse. 

I have heard them called the terror of the skies.
They eat anything that swims, runs, or flies.

When they move in, other owls get quiet.
You see, they too are on the great horned’s diet. 

Neither eagle nor heron is safe from their grasp.
The owl eats their chicks, quick as an asp. 

These birds build no nests, find a hollow tree, 
or take over another’s nest rent-free.

Through cold and snow, owl chicks grow fast. 
They fly in March; the nesting is past. 

The skunk is among their items of prey.
You will want to avoid them the following day.

Full Speed Ahead

I wonder how there came to be 
a plastic island in the sea.

No challenge to avoid a crash. 
Cleave right through, our course is brash.

Beware if barnacles adorn your boat.
They’ll snag each plastic piece afloat.

Cigarette lighters within the wrack
are thick as lice on heron’s back.

Birds and turtles feed on this mess.
Dead in a week would be my guess.

So, keep your plastic safe at home. 
Don’t send it out to sea to roam. 

 Eternal Flame

The deer and the turkey were still free to roam 
but the Cherokee had to find a new home.

The State of Georgia forbade them to meet 
so the Tennessee hills looked mighty sweet.

The council left New Echota one day, 
moved to Blue Hole at a place called Red Clay.

Old Hickory said that they had to go 
by boat and by wagon on a journey of woe.

One-fourth of them died on that sad trail of tears. 
To Oklahoma, they went for their future years.

The coals went with them in an old iron pot; 
rekindled each night, it wasn’t forgot. 

They built a new home out there in the west; 
made fire with the coals that they loved the best.

A message arrived from the Eastern Band, 
share fire with those who remained on the land.

To North Carolina, they sent a few coals 
and the fire burned on with new twin roles.

Eight runners arrived with a torch one day 
and the fire burns again in its home at Red Clay.

A footnote on the first poem. Jackie Mitchell was 17 years old when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. She later became the first, and thus far, the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. YouTube has a video of her striking out Babe Ruth.