Foul Shots: A Clinic

By William Matthews 1942–1997 William Matthews

for Paul Levitt

Be perpendicular to the basket,

toes avid for the line.

Already this description

is perilously abstract: the ball

and basket are round, the nailhead

centered in the centerplank

of the foul-circle is round,

and though the rumpled body

isn’t round, it isn’t

perpendicular. You have to draw

“an imaginary line,” as the breezy

coaches say, “through your shoulders.”

Here’s how to cheat: remember

your collarbone. Now the instructions

grow spiritual—deep breathing,

relax and concentrate both; aim

for the front of the rim but miss it

deliberately so the ball goes in.

Ignore this part of the clinic

and shoot 200 foul shots

every day. Teach yourself not to be

bored by any boring one of them.

You have to love to do this, and chances

are you don’t; you’d love to be good

at it but not by a love that drives

you to shoot 200 foul shots

every day, and the lovingly unlaunched

foul shots we’re talking about now—

the clinic having served to bring us

together—circle eccentrically

in a sky of stolid orbits

as unlike as you and I are

from the arcs those foul shots

leave behind when they go in.

Source: Rising and Falling (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1979)

Biography

William Matthews's poetry has earned him a reputation as a master of well-turned phrases, wise sayings, and rich metaphors. Much of Matthews's poetry explores the themes of life cycles, the passage of time, and the nature of human consciousness. In another type of poem, he focuses on his particular enthusiasms: jazz music, basketball, and his children. His early writing was free-form and epigrammatic. As his career has . . .

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