Response to Edward Hirsch's poem "Fast Break"

Fast Break
BY EDWARD HIRSCH

In Memory of Dennis Turner, 1946-1984

A hook shot kisses the rim and

hangs there, helplessly, but doesn’t drop,

and for once our gangly starting center   

boxes out his man and times his jump

perfectly, gathering the orange leather   

from the air like a cherished possession

and spinning around to throw a strike   

to the outlet who is already shoveling

an underhand pass toward the other guard   

scissoring past a flat-footed defender

who looks stunned and nailed to the floor   

in the wrong direction, trying to catch sight

of a high, gliding dribble and a man   

letting the play develop in front of him

in slow motion, almost exactly

like a coach’s drawing on the blackboard,

both forwards racing down the court

the way that forwards should, fanning out

and filling the lanes in tandem, moving   

together as brothers passing the ball

between them without a dribble, without   

a single bounce hitting the hardwood

until the guard finally lunges out   

and commits to the wrong man

while the power-forward explodes past them   

in a fury, taking the ball into the air

by himself now and laying it gently   

against the glass for a lay-up,

but losing his balance in the process,   

inexplicably falling, hitting the floor

with a wild, headlong motion

for the game he loved like a country

and swiveling back to see an orange blur   

floating perfectly through the net.

Edward Hirsch, “Fast Break” from Wild Gratitude. Copyright © 1985 by Edward Hirsch. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

           Edward Hirsch's poem "Fast Break" describes a play in basketball where a player makes a lay-up. This poem is written in memory of Dennis Turner, Edward Hirsch's friend. The player grabs the ball and tries to pass it to another player: "and spinning around to throw a strike / to the outlet who is already shoveling" (7-8).  The player caught the basketball and continued the play to try and shoot a basket.  Next, the players started to run through their play that was developing exactly how it was supposed: "like a coach's drawing on a blackboard" (16). Every detail of the play was elaborated to show how much that goes on in the five seconds of the play. As he goes up for the lay-up, he falls and hits the floor, "losing his balance in the process" (29).  This shows that he is on his own, just like when Dennis Turner learned he had liver cancer. The ball still goes through the net, but Dennis falls.   The ball symbolizes that he still has a shot, a chance, perhaps for treatment or hope that he might survive longer. Life can move pretty fast, so if you don't look around once in a while, you might miss it. Even though you might feel like things are not going your way, you have to keep trying because you don't know what's head, just like the ball "floating perfectly through the net," which symbolizes Dennis Turner even though he died too soon, he had a great life and the important move in life he made before he had to go.  --written by 5th hour