Analysis of Ego Bowling

Falling Awake 1991 (New Jersey)



They’re all keeping scores
Past these red, rusty doors
Shadows casted from the neon light             
Fall on rubber ducks sitting so tight          
In the quarter-turn vending machine              
Their faded beady eyes have seen   
Everything from love bloom on the lanes     
To a time when the carpet had less stains

From old boots to shoes styled proper
All find their way into an old locker
Now on equal footing, but still they cling
To their egos—it’s a recurring thing
As they play, their primal patterns are seen
Motions, thoughts, and all in between
And with any small misstep or stutter
The ball easily lands down in the gutter

But watch the strikes and you’ll see
Someone consistent, calm as can be
Moving with both patience and flow
But even the winner, it's important to know
All along, there was never any rival
Doesn’t matter if you made it to the final.


Scheme AABBCCDD EEFFCCEE GGHHII
Poetic Form
Metre 11101 111101 1110101 111011011 001011001 11010111 10111101 1011010111 11111110 1111011110 1110101111 1110100101 1111101011 10101001 0110101110 01100110010 1101011 10101111 10111001 110010101011 10111101010 11011111010
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 887
Words 159
Sentences 1
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 6
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 221
Words per stanza (avg) 50

About this poem

An exploration of ego through the lens of bowling--- a response to a challenge to use bowling and rubber duckies in the same poem.

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Written on February 03, 2024

Submitted by FallingAwake on February 03, 2024

48 sec read
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