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Write a poem about the 2022 FIFA World Cup happening now and post it in the comments section below. To get the ball rolling (pun intended), here is a World Cup sonnet by poet James A. Tweedie:

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Fast Forward

In soccer, forward strikers are the heart

And soul of every football team’s offense.

But strikers also play a vital part

In falling back and helping with defense.

 

But this requires a lot of running up

And down the pitch. Ronaldo, super star

For Portugal, in his fifth World Cup,

Was benched for not being fully up to par.

 

With Switzerland he came in as a sub

And scored an off-side goal that didn’t count.

But only after other players gave his club

A lead the other team could not surmount.

 

How hard to find that though we still stand tall,

With age we can no longer do it all.

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21 Responses

  1. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    The FIFA One-Worlder Cup ~ 2022

    See grifters push diversity of culture
    then rip Qatar’s apart just like a vulture.

    I was born with football tattooed on my bones
    Along with fish and chips and scones and tea.
    My years of terrace cheers dissolved to groans
    As England dropped upon its buckled knee
    In solidarity with Black Lives Matter –
    The Marxist mob who blame and shame and shatter.

    I saw St. George’s Cross ignite and burn
    Before my weak-kneed team had kicked a ball.
    That afternoon I saw the players spurn
    The home that spurred them on. They have it all –
    The freedom and the hope bought with the breath
    Of souls who fought for England to the death.

    I’ve sung in stadium stands in harshest weather.
    I’ve travelled miles to see the greatest play.
    I’ve mourned the sleight of hand by Maradona,
    And now it’s time for me to walk away.
    I won’t watch rainbow-rogues who’ve given up
    On England. I don’t care who wins the cup!

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      As always, yours is my favorite… but especially here, where you’re really writing what you know. You have the insider’s perspective on that one!

      Reply
    • David Whippman

      Well and stylishly said as always, Susan. It sickens me that England still “take the knee” (ie grovel) when most other teams have, mercifully, given it up. Especially when the BLM movement has been exposed as a money-grubbing swindle. Didn’t even one England player have the guts to remain standing tall and proud?

      Reply
  2. bengrinberg

    unlike machines there is no need to do anything more than once
    and like machines, but much better, everything’s clear with just a glance

    clear that the Japanese were more eager than the Germans
    Croatians stronger than Brazil, Saudis better than Argentina.
    that Americans need to learn to play in brazil
    Korea outmatched Portugal

    I thought it would be england france
    and brazil argentina
    but when croats sent brazil packing
    i say england and… ‘tina

    Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    England’s Bane Limerick

    For decades you could write a tome
    about England, the footballing gnome.
    Now, please, let them win,
    coz then we can bin
    that damn song about what’s coming home.

    Reply
    • Geoffrey S.

      I said this to you and to Dave and to Waldo:
      Portugal could have used much more of Ronaldo.
      Other than that–this may come as a shocker–
      I don’t know sqaut about this sport called soccer.

      Reply
  4. Paul Freeman

    Favourites Brazil Limerick

    Brazil, that renowned World Cup chaser,
    has just played an arse-about-facer.
    Expectations to win
    are now in the bin,
    on penalties, thanks to Croatia.

    Reply
  5. C.B. Anderson

    I don’t care very much for soccer —
    It tends drive me off my rocker:

    Young athletes sitting on their hands,
    A sport best staged in foreign lands

    Where deprivation is the norm.
    But yes, I like the perfect form

    Of pinwheeled players upside-down
    Who score to magnify their town

    Or country. Every single goal
    Will help to make a nation whole.

    Reply
  6. Stephen Dickey

    Soccer! the world’s most boring sport,
    From tie to tie the score’s the same—
    Zero to zero. What a game.
    Excitement seems to come up short.

    Maybe someone will score a point
    In all that passing to and fro?
    The odds are vanishingly low.
    The game’s been fixed to disappoint.

    Reply
      • Stephen Dickey

        Well, I was really just trying to have some fun with the topic. I think I do speak for American males I know who have a minor past time of mocking soccer.
        Cheers,

    • Stephen Dickey

      Slightly revised:
      Soccer! the world’s most boring sport,
      From tie to tie the score’s the same—
      Zero to zero. What a game.
      The thrill-an-hour comes up short.

      Maybe someone will score a point
      In all that passing to and fro?
      The odds are vanishingly low.
      The game’s been fixed to disappoint.

      Reply
  7. Paul Freeman

    My T-shirt made World Cup guards wail,
    Dark Side of the Moon was a fail.
    The spectrum shown looked
    like a rainbow and booked
    Hard time in a Qatari jail.

    Reply
    • Paul Freeman

      According to my son, someone with a Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt on was forced to take it off.

      Life imitatong art?

      Reply
  8. Jeff Eardley

    It looks like the dream is all over.
    We’d travelled so wide and so far.
    But now it’s all gloom and depression,
    Now that ball’s wafted over the bar.

    With cold, dreary midwinter mornings,
    When icicles hang from your nose.
    Our nation is starting to crumble,
    I guess that’s the way it all goes.

    We’re back to our moaning and groaning,
    In need of a reason to blame,
    The man with the weight on his shoulders,
    I give you the great Harry Kane.

    Reply
  9. Warren Bonham

    Even God Can’t Fix Soccer

    Meter: Anapestic Tetrameter

    “With God all things are possible” is quite a boast
    That one Biblical verse may be quoted the most
    But on closer inspection, this verse isn’t true
    There’s a list that’s quite long of the things God can’t do

    If you summed up the effort when all of us try
    And God used twice that effort, God still couldn’t lie
    God is good all the time so He can’t ever sin
    He does not have one speck of sin hidden within

    God has done signs and wonders. He’ll do many more
    But He cannot help soccer contestants to score
    Soccer’s boring as each fan of sport understands
    Since He cannot fix soccer, God gave us all hands

    Most importantly, He can’t make choices for you
    Of course, even that statement’s not technically true
    He could make you a robot without self-control
    But we know that no robot possesses a soul

    So, He gave us free will and then showed us the Way
    Though we’re deeply in debt, He made someone else pay
    And He also sent prophets who gave us His Word
    He has never stopped calling but few ever heard

    Ninety minutes of watching a one-nil defeat
    Should convince us we’re meant to use more than just feet
    God has also bestowed us with hands and a heart
    When we choose to serve, we should use each body part

    Reply
  10. Lloyd Slims

    Another year, another broken heart.
    Another golden squad ground in the dust
    And desert sands. Alike, the ruler’s art
    That Shelley sung – that dead, majestic bust.
    A sad lament – ‘O where did it go wrong?’
    Did ‘golden generations’ tread thee down?
    Or did a nation crush you? not as strong
    as that small man that donned an Arab gown.

    Hysteric All. Brought down by margins fine,
    no legislation can account for chance,
    or Koundé tryna snap your legs like twine,
    or referees who wished they played for France.
    So lose not focus Harry, dry your tears:
    And what’s four more, compared to sixty years?

    Reply
  12. Paul Freeman

    ‘Abnormal’ Martinez Limerick

    The Argentine keeper was told
    to keep the French players on hold.
    And for this, Martinez,
    was blessed with a penis
    some twelve inches long, made of gold.

    Reply
  13. Roy Eugene Peterson

    FORCED TO PLAY SOCCER

    Forced to play soccer in PT in school,
    A game likely made for a handless fool,
    I could run all day and not score a goal,
    Trying to kick the ball into a hole.

    The rules were arcane with offsides and such.
    How helpless I felt. My hands could not touch
    The ball unless throwing from out of bounds,
    Or being goalie who dived to the grounds.

    My feet were not made for holding a ball,
    But blasting it toward some ill-netted wall.
    The most fun I had when I was put in,
    Was kicking hard on some other guy’s shin.

    I’m sorry I missed this year’s World Cup play.
    I heard Argentina took it away.

    Reply

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