Selected Poems
By Bill Pearlman

These two Poems are in memory of Walter Weber(1924-2003) 

Tennis Furies at Walter Weber's Courts

Forced or unforced, fury builds
from error to error & implosion
(held checked by sanctioned rule)
burns red-hot on hard clay-

What the hell made this racket fail
or slid the volley under me
while vile strings went nowhere near 
the picture-perfect groundstroke?

Undone at net, a dribbling mishit
makes mischief of addled hopes,
puts the onus on sheer luck
and down goes the racket in rage.

And yet, submerged in ancient ritual
contestants storm exhaustive tumult,
as the occasional sweet-spot winner
brings us back to high five.

But whence cometh these tennis furies?
and how put them to work to flash-out
the effort of muscles on solid ground,
power surges recharged for joy

or the mute unfolding of mastery
summoned from the soul's vision 
of a fluid sunlit presence
where all is faultless & free

Tennis Butterfly

And while I stood on the clay court,
(down a break but rallying),
an abstract of hellish emotion
& bitter rivalry (en garde),

a small frail white butterfly
landed on my tennis shoe,
and I was ready for vision,
as I kicked my serve
into steadfast motion,
staving off court enemies,
landing a clean groundstroke,

that butterfly all the while 
reminding me
of the light happy states
life conspires toward,
the soft landings, the eternal joys