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Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion
Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion is a collection of found poems composed of the words of professional athletes.
The content of post-game interviews and sports chatter is so often meaningless, if not insufferable, and yet there are athletes like Metta World Peace who transcend lame clichés and rote patter, who use language in surprising ways, who can be funny and shocking and insightful and alarmingly sincere — pure poetry. Muhammad Ali offered dazzling displays of lexical wizardry, and Allen Iverson’s infamous “practice” rant shifted the post-game press conference from the banal to the absurd.
This book is a celebration of these rare and exceptional moments. Various poetic forms and line-breaks highlight — or, in the words of Deion Sanders, “deem to set a candor on” — the sophisticated, sublime, and surprising performances of language made by professional athletes.
The content of post-game interviews and sports chatter is so often meaningless, if not insufferable, and yet there are athletes like Metta World Peace who transcend lame clichés and rote patter, who use language in surprising ways, who can be funny and shocking and insightful and alarmingly sincere — pure poetry. Muhammad Ali offered dazzling displays of lexical wizardry, and Allen Iverson’s infamous “practice” rant shifted the post-game press conference from the banal to the absurd.
This book is a celebration of these rare and exceptional moments. Various poetic forms and line-breaks highlight — or, in the words of Deion Sanders, “deem to set a candor on” — the sophisticated, sublime, and surprising performances of language made by professional athletes.
120 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 13, 2018
Never fails to be thoughtful, funny, and creative. Athletes are a strange bunch.
May 17, 2016
I follow a lot of book instagrams (book street cred) and I saw a cover with Allen Iverson on it. I was pretty shocked and intrigued. I immediately looked up to see what this book was about. I am relatively new to liking poetry but I have been a huge basketball fan since about the 8th grade. I know that is late but when you are like 4 foot nothing and like sixty pounds in middle school sports don't usually pique your interest.. I can actually pinpoint the time when I started to love basketball. It was when I was my parents bought us a Sega Dreamcast. Video game systems often bundle games with the console and this particular one was packaged with NBA2K and NFL2K. I could really care less about those games but the Dreamcast that came with it was black and looked so much cooler than the white,gray, beige basic Dreamcast. As I started to put mileage on the Dreamcast, I started playing NBA2K more and more. My house was always full of brothers and friends so multiplayer games were always a must. When it came to competition I always chose the Lakers because Kobe and Shaq were ridiculously good. Rick Fox, AC Green, and Robert Horry weren't bad either. But it also made me enjoy the Dallas Mavericks that looked like/ were a terrible team. Shaun Bradley was freakishly tall ,Nowitzki was the frumpiest dude, Steve Nash was a tiny dude, and Michael Finley looked like the only legit player.
Instead of writing a short novel about my love for basketball I will review Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion. The concept of this book is pretty simple and interesting. It takes a microscope to "post game interviews." In today's 24 hour sports media, there are always athletes getting interviews somewhere. Most athletes treat it like a routine and recite old lines,"We gave 100%, Left it all on the field, followed the plan and came up short."But there are also some athletes that get baited by the media or just get caught up in the moment and say some outlandish stuff. Jeff Parker takes some of these interviews and puts them into the format of poetry. Parker argues that examining these interviews tells us a lot about these athletes. Of course, I would have to agree.
There are a lot of good stuff in here. There is a lot of poems with the intensity you would expect from athletes and there is a lot of funny poems from those you would expect like Mike Tyson, Metta World Peace, and Rasheed Wallace. If you are a sports fan and poetry fan I would definitely recommend this book. Even though that may be a small niche.
Instead of writing a short novel about my love for basketball I will review Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion. The concept of this book is pretty simple and interesting. It takes a microscope to "post game interviews." In today's 24 hour sports media, there are always athletes getting interviews somewhere. Most athletes treat it like a routine and recite old lines,"We gave 100%, Left it all on the field, followed the plan and came up short."But there are also some athletes that get baited by the media or just get caught up in the moment and say some outlandish stuff. Jeff Parker takes some of these interviews and puts them into the format of poetry. Parker argues that examining these interviews tells us a lot about these athletes. Of course, I would have to agree.
There are a lot of good stuff in here. There is a lot of poems with the intensity you would expect from athletes and there is a lot of funny poems from those you would expect like Mike Tyson, Metta World Peace, and Rasheed Wallace. If you are a sports fan and poetry fan I would definitely recommend this book. Even though that may be a small niche.
February 11, 2018
This was one of the coolest books I’ve read so far. It was awesome to see an interview I’ve seen turned into poetry that embodied the athlete. Alexander Ovechkin’s interview turned poem was true to form and everything I love about him. On a different note, with the exception of Dave Williams, I think it was good that they kept contentious figures like Tonya Harding in this selection.
June 3, 2025
This was brilliant. Sports talk is so thorough in our modern culture, and athletes often strive to say nothing. To take post game speeches or answers and elevate them into often quite interesting and profound poetry was a wonderful concept executed exceptionally. Really enjoyed.
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January 1, 2023Super fun and zany. My favourite poetry flavours.
February 12, 2017
Read for Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2017: "Read a book about sports"
March 11, 2016
As far as poetry goes I enjoyed this more than almost all the other trying to hard to be thought provoking poems I have ever read. It may be associated with the fact that the people reciting the words were famous athletes.
Some amazing stuff though.
Some of the poetry was inspiring and not that it may not have been in its original context but the way Jeff and Pasha set them into order was brilliant. Memorable moments were Larry Bird, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali's stuff. Iversons "Practice" was a favorite of mine since he said it a few years back and glad that it made the cut.
Blew through this read and even read some of the poems over out loud.
If you love sports and poetry or either at all pick this up and have it to share with friends they will enjoy it for the sports and think you are sophisticated because of the poetry ;)
Your poetic, bearded, sort of athletic friend,
Justin
Some amazing stuff though.
Some of the poetry was inspiring and not that it may not have been in its original context but the way Jeff and Pasha set them into order was brilliant. Memorable moments were Larry Bird, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali's stuff. Iversons "Practice" was a favorite of mine since he said it a few years back and glad that it made the cut.
Blew through this read and even read some of the poems over out loud.
If you love sports and poetry or either at all pick this up and have it to share with friends they will enjoy it for the sports and think you are sophisticated because of the poetry ;)
Your poetic, bearded, sort of athletic friend,
Justin
June 23, 2016
An incredible exploration into the forum of sports poetry by appropriating the voices and commentary of those directly effect by the subject itself. This work accompanies David Foster Wallace's famous essay on "Rodger Federer as Religious Experience" in affirming the assertion that sports in "poetry in motion". Simultaneously, this text also manages to adequately explore the sexual, gender and racial dimensions of the sports realm proving a school of sports poetry need not be limited to tropes associated with the sport in question or to the tradition poetic voice. A must-read for lovers of sports before lovers of poetry.
January 31, 2016
Phenomenal concept and execution. Aside from the obvious "sports as poetry" figures like Ali (whose prose received great treatment here), taking the lesser known athletes and interweaving the larger figures made for a great work of art. Highlights for me were "I Am Beautiful, Famous, and Gorgeous," "Multiple Herschels," "Let the Thugs Play," and "Kerrigan v. Harding."
February 16, 2016
The poem created with the words of Muhammad Ali is so incredibly stirring. Well done collection. Great illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews