3 Sports poems: cheerleading poem, basketball poem, baseball poem, all create visual and sensory impressions for the reader through use of alliteration.

Sports Poems: Cheerleading, Basketball, Baseball

Just as sports are fun for both boys and girls, poetry can be fun also. Both boys and girls can enjoy the following sports poems that use alliteration. Each of the sports poems involve the readers bringing them into the moment. The 3 sports poems each create an image in the mind’s eye.

The sports poems, Cheerleading by Barbara R Johnson, Foul Shot by Edwin A. Hoey, and The Base Stealer by Robert Francis, describe those who bring supporting spirit and two often exciting game moments in some of the most popular sports in the USA.

For the many alliteration posts on NanasCorner.com, check these out!

Activity for Grandparents, Parents, and Teachers

Before reading the following sports poems, explain the definition of alliteration (the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables). After reading the 3 sports poems, ask your grandchild, child, or student to find the examples of alliteration and to explain how alliteration adds to the mood and visual impression created by each poem.

3 Alliterative Sports Poems

Cheerleading by Barbara R Johnson

Sport, show
Squad, strive
Smile, stand straight
Silence simmers
Step, stomp
Shout, sing
Solid stunts
Synchronized sounds
Supporting spirit…
Score!

Foul Shot by Edwin A. Hoey

With two 60s stuck on the scoreboard
And two seconds hangin on the clock,
The solemn boy in the center of eyes,
Squeezed by silence,
Seeks out the line with his feet,
Soothes his hands along his uniform,
Gently drums the ball against the floor,
Then measures the waiting net,
Raises the ball on his right hand,
Balances it with his left,
Calms it with fingertips,
Breathes,
Crouches,
Waits,
And then through a stretching of stillness,
Nudges it upward.

The ball
Slides up and out.
Lands,
Leans,
Wobbles,
Wavers,
Hesitates,
Exasperates,
Plays it coy
Until every face begs with unsounding screams–
And then
And then
And then,
Right before ROAR-UP,
Dives down and through.

The Base Stealer by Robert Francis

Poised between going on and back, pulled
Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,
Fingertips pointing the opposites,
Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball
Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,
Running a scattering of steps sidewise,
How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,
Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,
He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,
Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate – now!