This is Real Life

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Poems, Pirates & Pfootball

Football season is now in full swing. To celebrate, family and friends of ours shared a special CD with us featuring the legendary voice of John Facenda and the music of Sam Spence. It celebrates the Americanism of football and Footballism in America. It's a great tribute to the sport. Joel has been quite taken with a track on that CD and runs for his plastic sword whenever we turn the CD on. He says, "can we listen to The Poem?" Here's the poem:

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea

With a rollicking song he sweeps along

Swaggering boisterously.


His face is weatherbeaten

He wears a hooded sash

With a silver hat about his head

And a bristling black mustache


He growls as he storms the country

A villain big and bold

And the trees all shake and quiver and quake

As he robs them of their gold.


The Autumn wind is a Raider

Pillaging just for fun

He'll knock you 'round and upside down

And laugh when he's conquered and won.


Now, in my investigation into the history of The Poem I have not found out for certain who it was written by. It appears that a certain Mary Jane Carr wrote The Poem in slightly more light hearted language, and it was later adapted into the Hymn of the Raider Nation (for the Oakland Raiders) by Steve Sabol. I personally am not a Raiders fan. However, growing up with a love for this poem - especially listening to John Facenda reading it - could make a Raiders fan out of Joel.

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