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Caught Looking
CAUGHT LOOKING by Charles Sean Carroll is a chapbook volume of both narrative and lyrical poetry that offers a broad view of the human condition through the lens of our national pastime. The work is divided into three sections correspondent to the seasons in which the game of baseball is played—spring, summer, and fall; the poems themselves represent a gradual shift from early themes of innocence and nostalgia to the more realistic—and often disillusioning—facets of experience.
46 pages, Paperback
Published August 7, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2024
Briefly: Poems for all seasons
A collection of 20 poems, Caught Looking cleverly uses a framing device of seasons to group its poems appropriately: The collection sees a progression from Spring to Summer to Fall which tracks a general progression of its entries from lighter to weightier, and from those focused on youth and possibility to poems with a retrospective quality, reflecting on events gone by. While unified by baseball, the thematic makeup of the poems demonstrates the broadness of that canvas: This collection astutely balances literary allusions to Frost and Conrad with baseball references to Mantle and Conigliaro with transparently autobiographical entries with more universal observational poems.
The standout poem for most is likely to be “A Difference of Opinion,” in which a baseball and golf ball debate the literary merits of their respective sports. However, my personal favorite is “Baselines,” a microcosm of the collection’s overall structure, pivoting from a trip down the first baseline and hopeful possibility to the return trip up the third baseline and the narrowing of possibility as life advances toward a conclusion. Honorable mentions: “The Two Strike Hitter” and “I Almost Burned My Whole Life Down.”
A collection of 20 poems, Caught Looking cleverly uses a framing device of seasons to group its poems appropriately: The collection sees a progression from Spring to Summer to Fall which tracks a general progression of its entries from lighter to weightier, and from those focused on youth and possibility to poems with a retrospective quality, reflecting on events gone by. While unified by baseball, the thematic makeup of the poems demonstrates the broadness of that canvas: This collection astutely balances literary allusions to Frost and Conrad with baseball references to Mantle and Conigliaro with transparently autobiographical entries with more universal observational poems.
The standout poem for most is likely to be “A Difference of Opinion,” in which a baseball and golf ball debate the literary merits of their respective sports. However, my personal favorite is “Baselines,” a microcosm of the collection’s overall structure, pivoting from a trip down the first baseline and hopeful possibility to the return trip up the third baseline and the narrowing of possibility as life advances toward a conclusion. Honorable mentions: “The Two Strike Hitter” and “I Almost Burned My Whole Life Down.”
February 25, 2020
Caught Looking is much more than baseball-themed poetry. Charles Sean Carroll's chapbook connects the nature of the sport to the up-and-down experiences of life. Carroll's lifelong passion and involvement in baseball evokes a strong emotional recall of childhood and adulthood-- memories are afire with a vivid (and often metaphorical) description of grappling with disappointment, frustration, anger, determination, joy, and love-- directly and indirectly through the sport. Beautifully written and a pleasure to read, I highly recommend Caught Looking.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews