Poetry Books about Sports

Sports and poetry may seem like an unlikely combination, but it has ancient roots with poems recited at sporting events such as victory odes at the earliest Olympics. Perhaps a poem from one of the books below can kick off an athletic competition, sporting event, or field day celebration.

The list begins:

            Adoff, Arnold. 2000. The Basket Counts. New York: Simon & Shuster.

           Burleigh, Robert. 2001. Goal. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.

Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2004. Over in the Pink House: New Jump Rope Rhymes. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills.

Franco, Betsy. 2009. Messing Around the Monkey Bars and other School Poems for Two Voices. Ill. by Jessie Hartland. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Hoyte, Carol-Ann and Roemer, Heidi Bee. Eds. 2012. And the Crowd Goes Wild!: A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. Ill. by Kevin Sylvester. Neche, ND: Friesens Press.

For more details, get your copy of The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists.

And if you already have the book and would like to offer additions, corrections, or other input, please do so in the COMMENTS area. Thanks!