By John Ducker
Grade: It’s a “B” for me, but your mileage may vary.
Poetry is a personal thing, and what one person enjoys, another thinks utter drivel. My tastes run to Kipling, for example, in spite of my favorite High School teacher’s efforts to turn me on to EE Cummings. I love Poe, but not Maya Angelou.
That said, I enjoyed The Kiss that Caused My Slice, even if the “style” of poetry isn’t my favorite. Each of Ducker’s nineteen poems is a short golf story and his passion for the game shines through any qualms I might have about the meter and rhyme. There are poems about long lost golfing partners, a round with the mother-in-law, and a girl he met on the course who left a lasting impression. Some are whimsical fantasies; others deep introspection. All, I think, will strike a chord with nearly any serious golfer.
A nice bonus to the verse are the accompanying course photos from around the United States and Scotland. The collection has eighteen poems and one for the clubhouse, so the course photos fit right in.
It’s a worthy effort, and depending upon your appreciation of poetry, worthy of a read.
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Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to check out that book at some point, because although I have to agree that taste in poetry is as personal as a putting stroke, I was always turned off by golf poetry because it all read like some romanticized piece of historic crap.
Ha. That being said, I’ll have to check this one out. Although I have to say, I’m a huge Charles Bukowski fan, so this book may not be my cup of tea.
This book is a must gift for any golfer, for anyone who lives with or wants to live with a golfer, perhaps for anyone who wants convincing to move out from a golfer, and for anyone who wants to do a golfer a great favor.