Shakespeare Bats Cleanup: Grief

Ron Koertge’s Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is filled with a number of poems written by 14-year-old, Kevin.

             Meet Kevin:

 1. He’s grieving the loss of his mom.

 2. He LOVES baseball.

 3. He can’t play baseball currently because he’s home in bed with mono.

4. He spends his down time writing poems reflecting on his past.

While the opinions (from the class) were definitely mixed after reading this book, I definitely found it be interesting. I enjoyed the style of short, concise poems and I felt the reader gained knowledge on poetry, in general.  Personally, I can relate to Kevin. I lost my father to cancer four years ago and I feel writing is such an incredibly powerful tool when expressing grief and working through the pain. I actually spent a lot of this semester writing about my dad in one of my classes. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed this book. So, the theme I want to focus on is grief.

The reader really gains a sense for Kevin's mom in his poem, “Pantoum for Mom.” 

                “Diagnosis? Dark, angry blood.

  Months to live, then weeks, then days.”  (pg. 29)

It’s quite heart-wrenching to read his poems as he reflects on his mom. As a reader, it also makes you wonder what it is she died from. You can assume cancer, but are not fully sure.

He then goes on to say on the next page:

                “It’s funny. If I let myself go and wrote about her getting sick, all I’d do is whine. Instead, I made something semigood.”  

“Mom would’ve liked it.” (pg.30)

For a 14-year-old boy, that’s pretty impressive in my opinion. He has slowly begun to transition in reflecting on how great of a mom she was and how she made his life better by just being there.

While moving closer toward the end of the book, I wasn’t looking for an outcome that showed their grieving process to be complete- or that they are completely fine now. That doesn’t just happen by any means. Very unrealistic. So, the ending showed that strides were being made. I liked his reflection during his last poem, “A Poem for Poetry.”

                “But finally I was able to say stuff, like about Mom, that was kind of buried inside. It was great to talk to her, sort of, and for sure about her.” (pg. 115)

He is basically crediting poetry for helping him express his feelings and emotions. He is working through his grief and trying to move forward. Sure, he doesn’t have his same position in baseball, but that’s ok. I think he’s realized what is truly important in life.