Caught Looking, Poems by Charles Sean Carroll

Caught Looking by Charles Sean Carroll is a chapbook volume of both narrative and lyrical poetry that offers a broad view of the human condition through the lens of our national pastime. The work is divided into three sections correspondent to the seasons in which the game of baseball is played-- spring, summer, and fall; the poems themselves represent a gradual shift from early themes of innocence and nostalgia to the more realistic--and often disillusioning-facets of experience.

Sample Poems by Sean Carroll

"Like Pedro Martinez, baseball poet Charles Sean Carroll gets you looking for the fastball, then throws you a change. You'll tip your cap at his artistry."-Mike Shannon

"It's often said that baseball is a metaphor for life. It's often said that baseball, unlike any other sport, inspires poetry and literature. Those sentiments are evident here in Carroll's book of baseball themed poems, which carry larger messages about childhood and family, good and bad. There is redemption here, but Carroll is not afraid to explore the darker side of life through the lens of baseball."-Jack Smiles

"Enter the charmed circle-or diamond-of childhood, the romance of the little stitched ball, and root, root, root for the home team, or at least the neighborhood kids who find meaning in the national pastime, with Charles Carroll's seasoned cycle of (mostly) baseball poems, Caught Looking. Poems such as 'In Dreams,' 'Wiffleball on Jackson Street,' and 'Birches' Revisited' will transport you to a place where a youngster doesn't need much more than a patch of open ground to find magic and mystery with a bat and ball. If the grown-up game is your thing, take in the debate between golf ball and baseball in 'Difference of Opinion' or the rumination on family problems in 'I Almost Burned My Whole Life Down.' This is a collection that goes around the horn, encompassing a child's unconscious desire and an adult's unspoken anger."-John Zedolik