JUMP BALL: A BASKETBALL SEASON IN POEMS by Mel Glenn



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Glenn, Mel. 1997. JUMP BALL: A BASKETBALL SEASON IN POEMS. New York: Lodestar. ISBN 052567554X

Review

A high school basketball season is experienced through the personal poems of the members of the basketball team as well as other key members to the story.  Competition, dating, pregnancy, and tragedy are explored throughout the pages.  We read about Garrett James, a player looking to go pro, and his love of the game and his dislike for the media’s questions.  Author Mel Glenn uses the poetry to convey attitudes of the characters.  We feel like James is somewhat quiet and prefers to do his talking on the court.  Mary Beth Hoskins’ poems reveals her tolerance for having a husband as a dedicated basketball coach but we also sense her loneliness as we read, “I often eat, sleep, and live alone.”  The poems give you glimpses into the accident that occurs at the end of the book and readers will be anticipating the outcome. 

Jump Ball is an abstract play on emotions.  The reader will connect with the lives and feelings of the characters and will develop their own hopes of what happens to them.  Readers will also connect with the cultural language that is used with words such as, “ain’t doin’ nothin’,” “outta here,” and “I ain’t no ball player, you is.”   Differentiated poem sounds and structure are used to keep readers interested.  For example, poems with same word endings like “zone” and “zone” in Garrett James (below) and slant rhyme poems like Dennis Carleton can spark interest among users with words that don’t rhyme but are similar like “enough” and “but” or “son” and “was.”  In addition, the Basketball Pulse poems are concrete poems which also appeal to young readers. 

Poetry in Action:

Introducing the Poem:  Have students share with a partner a time when they got to do their favorite hobby and it was a good time/moment. 

Follow up Activity:  Have students notice the middle of the poem where the author uses the same word at the end of the sentences.  Have students create a poem of their own using their hobby as a topic and having the same ending in a part of the poem. 

Garrett James

I’ve played in tournaments ‘round the country.

I’ve gone coast-to-coast,

From one baseline to another,

From one ocean to another.

I’ve flown over more time zones

Than u can remember.

But there is only one zone that counts,

Not the parking zone,

              hospital zone,

             loading zone,

             commercial zone,

Not the combat zone,

red zone,

end zone,

neutral zone.

When I am in THE ZONE,

Every pass connects; every shot clicks.

I can’t hear the crowd or the coach.

I am alone, alive, above the rim, above the arena,

Playin’ in a zone for which there is no defense.

Nobody can ever hurt me up there.

I am untouchable.