The original saying of \u201cYour arms too short to box with God\u201d came from a James Weldon Johnson<\/a> poem, \u201cThe Prodigal Son<\/a>.\u201d The first stanza from this classic and spiritual poem reads:<\/p>\n \u201cYoung man\u2014 And in another part of the poem:<\/p>\n \u201cYoung man\u2014 Johnson\u2019s poem, from which the title was derived, is a poem about trying to control God\u2019s fate instead of trying to understand it. It\u2019s a huge warning to the young man in the poem, whom the speaker is talking to. In our current world, we tend to like control. We like independence.<\/p>\n In the same vein, Matthew Johnson\u2019s poetry collection<\/a> is a deep dive into an old and precious sport, boxing, and its intertwined history with literature, politics, race and religion. The poems are a demonstration of Johnson\u2019s in-depth knowledge about the sport and about other figures in history, like boxers Muhammed Ali and Joe Louis, among others. It is evident how much Johnson knows. Even more so, his passions for the sport and for poetry are undeniable in this collection.<\/p>\n The collection is easy to read and can be finished in one sitting. As a reader with limited knowledge in boxing, the marriage of boxing and history in these poems intrigued me. I felt that I was having a conversation with the poems on life, history and sports. The act of fighting works as a symbol: we\u2019re not all boxers, but we all confront difficult times in our lives. The keys are belief and persistence.<\/p>\n This poetry collection uses boxing as a thread for a discussion on sports and racism. Many boxers mentioned, like Sam Longford and Jack Johnson, fought and won matches at a time when there was constant hostility in the streets. Inside the ring, boxers were winning. Outside the ring, riots were happening in the streets against Black Americans.<\/p>\n From the poem, \u201cThe Dilemma of Rooting for Jack Johnson\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey even pay him to knock the teeth in of white men; \/ I want him to win, but the white folks get mad when he do.\u201d<\/p>\n Boxing took on such a significant meaning among the public, especially when many Black boxers came from humble beginnings and their skills were self-taught. But they were winning.<\/p>\n There are 20 poems in the collection. Some poems meditate on the cross between sports and black history. Other poems are a tight embrace into the author\u2019s life. In some poems, he is imagining his childhood when he imitated boxers and fought his brother, hidden away from the concerned eyes of his parents.<\/p>\n From \u201cBulky Winter Gloves\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe closest we got to the ring was when one parent was working, \/ And the other was downstairs, fixing dinner in the kitchen,\u201d<\/p>\n Then there are the poems that acknowledge writers, poets\u2026<\/p>\n From \u201cThe Manassas Mauler on the Canvas\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c…there is humanity in seeing the best of boxers out of rhythm, \/ As if he was one of us up there, and there is also a moment \/ To contemplate, as the writers lift him back into the ring; \/ We\u2019re just too close to so much destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n The poems are conversational, like speaking to a friend, and they are rich with knowledge and feeling. None of the poems span more than half a page or a page, making it easy to consume.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that many poets are sports lovers, but not all poets will include sports in their work, especially in full collections. However, it doesn\u2019t mean poets don\u2019t write sports poems. I found these individual poems on sports while perusing through sports poems. They carry similar tones of meditations on injustice, sincerity and how sports reflect life.<\/p>\n Terrance Hayes<\/a> from the poem \u201cTalk\u201d on silence and wisdom in a moment of injustice:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cand if you’re thinking my knuckles knocked<\/p>\n a few times against his jaw or my fingers knotted<\/p>\n at his throat, you’re wrong because I pretended<\/p>\n I didn’t hear him, and when he didn’t ask it again,<\/p>\n we slipped into our middle school uniforms<\/p>\n since it was November, the beginning<\/p>\n of basketball season\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Kobe Bryant once wrote a poem to basketball: (From \u201cDear Basketball<\/a>\u201d):<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnd we both know, no matter what I do next \/ I\u2019ll always be that kid \/ With the rolled up socks\u201d.<\/p>\n James Wright<\/a> from \u201cAutumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio<\/a>,\u201d writing about working class men watching their sons play football:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, \/ Their sons grow suicidally beautiful \/ At the beginning of October, \/ And gallop terribly against each other\u2019s bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanif Abdurraqib<\/a> from his book on basketball \u201cThere\u2019s Always This Year<\/a>\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI love the homecoming because I have known what it is to leave. I have seen the city I love from the sky just as I have seen the city I love from the cracks in between metal bars. Cherish the homecoming, because you know what lasts forever and what does not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>
\nYoung man\u2014
\nYour arm\u2019s too short to box with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nYoung man\u2014
\nSmooth and easy is the road
\nThat leads to hell and destruction.
\nDown grade all the way,
\nThe further you travel, the faster you go.
\nNo need to trudge and sweat and toil,
\nJust slip and slide and slip and slide
\nTill you bang up against hell\u2019s iron gate.\u201d<\/p>\nSummary: 20 Short Poems About Race, Politics and History Through the Lens of Boxing<\/h2>\n
Poems and Books Like \u2018Too Short to Box with God\u2019<\/h3>\n