Erin Lennon
Re-mediating: From paper to Yankee Stadium
An author's note: This one was a challenge to say the least. Prior to this project, I had never opened iMovie or anything more advanced than the photo booth on my Mac, and had some significant growing pains along the way because of it. This video does not, after all my screwing around with technology, have a voiceover of the poem itself, but I am ultimately happy with that. My intent for this video is for it to be played as my poem is being read over the loudspeakers at Yankee Stadium on game day, the anniversary of 9/11. Much like the videos that accompany teams as they head out to play, I want this to be a montage streamed over the video board in center field played as a tribute to the victims of 9/11 and the New Yorkers who came together in Yankee Stadium to pay homage. Thr poem itself would be read aloud and displayed for those in need on the video board as well.
This is arguably my most unfinished piece, but like most of the things in this site, they'll get there....
On first base they stood hands, hearts
Layered. Badges glisten, helmets gleam
Pinstripes stand attention and wet eyes stare out
Left field the land of the free.
And the flag it hangs in the distance
Dancing a waltz to the echo of
Oh say can you see
See lights of fire trucks as they pass by Men and children, women and elderly in masks
The temperature is over 65 degrees
There are scarves and gloves and boots
See dust swirl and settle, buildings crumbled and burned
By the dawn’s early light
In the Bronx the building buzzes with the force of
A hundred thousand bees
That whine and bellow and sway against innocent breeze
And on the green gleam the shiny buttons and blaring white
Of police women and men who stare into the night at a flag
Blowing in the breeze
They salute and U-‐S-‐A rains down upon them with tears and Fist that call for blood and cry for revenge on a field of dreams
And like the wife who stopped the sound of grief From flowing for her husband, her fatherless children There is silence
Hush, bubble and quell
And scratch the mound and look in for the sign
Snap, Pow
Bang, boom, boom
Boom
Boom
Play Ball.
School is let out early and there’s talk of planes and mom
She hides her face, hides the tears that skid down her face
There are shrieks and weeps but mostly just faces
That saw in person
That saw on TV
That see in their dreams
They do not cry because the are from New York, faces Sunken in in shock because this is New York
Someone will pay, the man says through the screen
“You” his eyes defy,
“You’re either with us or with the terrorists”
Pushed from behind with the force of 2,996 hands
As the once dormant crowd boils and explodes and lava
It pours onto home plate and into the pile of Yanks U-‐S-‐A, louder, thumping pounding
The heartbeat of a city.
The plate is crossed and from that bench pinstripes surge and Swell.
The crowd erupts
They groan, in perfect harmony
What’s so proudly
They hailed and the moon it floated up and nestled
Aside that flag proclaims
If only at the twilights last gleaming.
We will win
We will survive
We will thrive
We will not die
Oh say, oh say what is that patriotism harkening
That calls for blood from a splintering bat
That makes a baseball field a battlefield
An opponent a terrorist?
It is a glorious win
Not one to pad stats or egos
A triumphant win that healed the souls
Of those who lost that day
The ones who wore masks and scarves
Who cried and shrieked and prayed to God
For revenge
Who promised that we would win.
It is American patriotism
The kind that takes no prisoners
Seeks blood for the blood of its own
Good ol’ boy patriotism.
Oh say Is that spirit restored?
We won the game, do we win the war? Does that star spangled banner
Wave over those New York Yankees
Those lost in the buildings, in the planes
Those hearts still wounded,
Over the land of the free
Of the home of the brave.
It booms over the stadium walls “Please welcome, The President of the United States”
He walks and there is no more silence
He walks and does not stop ‘til he stands Just inches above the ground
On top of the world, on a tower built from heroes
Who scream and cry and cheer as loud as they did
Two months ago when two towers
Collapsed with their world beneath them
They chant, louder “U S A”
It bounces off the skyscrapers
Makes the cameras hiss.