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A Non-Ascending Order of Passes

Alex Saynor

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 The first is the Hollywood, lofted
or hooked thirty yards from its target’s foot
over an advertising board for East Neuk Salt.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 The second is the slide rule
from a vision barely peripheral –
a pitch for heaven in the eye of a needle.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 The third is a clip down the line
you didn’t want to play: a pragmatic,
high-pressure parting of the ways.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 The fourth is a switch to the other side:
a sudden tactical change of mind
against wise calls or against the tide.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 The fifth and most important,
they say, is like a fee you anonymously pay.
It is an easy-to-see but harder-to-choose
calm, decisive, quick-release move:

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 the one that says ‘This one’s for you.’
It’s the simple ball, for most of the time:
a simple ball you almost vanish to find.

Notes

What’s the right balance between individual creative expression and ‘letting the ball do the work’? Some people often try the spectacular and it rarely works for them: though does trying it mean it was the wrong decision? There is also the received wisdom that the ‘simple ball’ is always right (‘play the way you’re facing etc). And it often is – pass and move, and work as a team. Yet do people who always expect and encourage the ‘simple ball’ create a culture that lacks freedom of expression? Should it be a mix of all kinds of passes and decisions, with a compassionate view of when things go wrong? Or does a strict pattern need to be imposed…

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/a-non-ascending-order-of-passes/