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‘We Swat, We Sweat Together’

Your best ping pong haikus

by
Dan Klein
November 23, 2010
(American Jewish Historical Society/Flickr)
(American Jewish Historical Society/Flickr)

As one contest opens, another closes. Yesterday, we announced ourJewish bowling poetry competition. Today, we end our ping pong haiku face-off. Soon to come in our ongoing series of Jews, sports, and verse: Jewish polo, Jewish fox-hunting, and Jewish Quidditch.

Anyway! The competition was fierce, but Matthew Siegel, Mary Bilyeu, and Alex Solaño (whose haikus are also Jonathan Safran Foer-themed) can raise their figurative paddles high. They each win a copy of Eli Horowitz and Roger Bennett’s new book, Everything You Know Is Pong: How Mighty Table Tennis Shapes Our World.

Congratulations! Poems after the jump.

Matthew Siegel:

Paddles in our hands
We breathe this coldest season
Your father’s garage

Ball, light as winter
We swat, we sweat together
Don’t need ”I love you.”

Again the garage
the dangling yellow light bulb
At last we are saved

Our parents divorce
It does not matter you say
Million dollar serve

The world is this small
You hold the ball in your hand
Wind carries it off

Mary Bilyeu:

It’s mesmerizing …
Breath-taking, heart-stopping, too.
Change the world. Play Pong.

Alex Solaño:

It’s sad how badly
Jonathan Safran Foer
Got his ass paddled

Reading the books of
Jonathan Safran Foer
Makes your balls spin wrong

Eating animals,
Jonathan Safran Foer,
Might have helped your game

He thinks he’s so smart.
Jonathan Safran Foer
Gets balls in his face