The Ball Dreams of the Sky

Is baseball a subset of life, or life a subset of baseball? Hard to say in this imaginative book of autobiographical poems that translates life—all nine innings—into the language and metaphor of the game. Everything from childhood trauma, to early stardom, love, sex, creativity, meditation, midlife crisis, God and more is batted around, lofted high, and tenderly caught like a ball in a glove. Even the ghosts of the Holocaust sometimes haunt the all-embracing field of play. At once memoir, homage, and all-out celebration of the game, this book explores baseball as a mother tongue of the heart that seems capable of wrapping itself around everything.

HENRY SCHIPPER is an award-winning filmmaker in Los Angeles who has written and/or produced over 125 primetime documentaries. He once held the Babe Ruth League record for consecutive no-hitters in Wisconsin. This is his first book of poems.

Rick Lupert has been involved with poetry in Los Angeles since 1990. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ted Slade Award and the 2014 Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center Distinguished Service Award, a three-time Pushcart Prize Nominee, and a Best of the Net nominee. He served as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets for two years and created Poetry Super Highway. He's authored 27 collections of poetry, and writes a Jewish poetry column for JewishJournal.com. He has been lucky enough to read his poetry all over the world. His Jewish poetry can be found at JewishPoetry.net.

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