Lebron James Poetry Compilation 

Ms. Weddle 
 
Three Poems: 
 
Poem One:​ “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds 
 
Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, 
the​ way Houdini would expand his body 
while people were putting him in chains. It seems 
no time since I would help him to put on his sleeper, 
guide his calves into the gold interior​, 
zip him up and toss him up and 
catch his weight. I cannot imagine him 
no longer a child, and I know I must get ready, 
get over my fear of men now my son 
is going to be one. ​This was not 
what I had in mind​ when he ​pressed up through me like a 
sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson​, 
snapped​ the padlock, unsnaked the chains, 
and appeared in my arms. Now he looks at me 
the way Houdini studied a box 
to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled. 
 
Devices: ​Sharon Olds uses multiple poetic devices in this poem. When Olds writes, “way 
Houdini would expand his body,” she gives a ​historical allusion ​connecting magician Harry 
Houdini contorting his body to her son’s growth with age. She uses ​imagery ​when she says, 
“guide his calves into the gold interior,” by creating a mental image of the color of her son’s 
sleeper and the act of dressing him as a small child. She uses ​enjambment w​ hen she 
continues her thought across two lines, “This was not/what I had in mind,” to create an 
effect of her poem being almost like a stream of consciousness with thoughts wandering. 
Her simile, “pressed up through me like a sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson...” 
compares giving birth, and specifically her son “freeing himself, ” to one of Houdini’s 
mystifying magic tricks.  
 
Poem Two:​ “How You Know” by Joe Mills 
 
How do you know if it’s love? ​she asks,  
and I think if you have to ask, it’s not,  
but I know this won’t help. ​I want to say  
you’re too young to worry about it, 
as if she has questions about Medicare  
or social security, but this won’t help either.  
“You’ll just know” is a lie, and one truth,  
“when you still want to be with them  
the next morning,” would involve too  
many follow-up questions. The difficulty  
with love,​ I want to say,​ is sometimes  
you only know afterwards that it’s arrived  
or left.​ Love is the elephant and we  
are the blind mice unable to understand  
the whole.​ I want to say love is this  
desire to help even when I know I can’t,  
just as I couldn’t explain ​electricity, stars,  
the color of the sky, baldness, tornadoes,  
fingernails, coconuts​, or the other things  
she has asked about over the years, all  
those phenomena whose daily existence  
seems miraculous. Instead I shake my head.  
I don’t even know how to match my socks.  
Go ask your mother. She laughs and says,  
I did. Mom told me to come and ask you. 
 
Devices: ​Joe Mills uses multiple poetic devices to explain how hard it is as a parent to  
prepare your child for life. He uses ​repetition ​with the phrases, “I want to say,” to show the 
thought process of trying to find the perfect answer to a child’s endless questions. The 
phrase, “Love is the elephant and we/ are the blind mice unable to understand/ the whole,” 
combines ​enjambment ​and ​simile,​ to compare the act of understanding love to a tiny little 
blind mouse trying to understand something as large as an elephant. The sentence moves 
across multiple lines to show the poet toiling with the idea of explaining the concept to his 
young child using comparisons, and the comparison shows how vast and confusing the 
concept of love is as a whole. Lastly, Mills uses the line, “electricity, stars/ the color of the 
sky, baldness, tornadoes,/ fingernails, cocounts,” as imagery to put specific images in the 
reader’s head of the multitude of questions always coming from children. 
 
Poem Three:​ “My Dad and I” by Phyllis C. Michael 
 
My dad and I ​– we think alike, 
He knows just what I ​mean 
Before I even say a word 
He reads, well, in​ between​. 
 
My dad and I​ – we like to fish 
Or build a model plane, 
 
Or fix a broken chair or two 
Or just a windowpane. 
 
My dad and I​ – we know the score 
Of every single game; 
Sometimes he’s really busy, too 
But he takes me just the same. 
 
My dad and I ​– we go swimming too, 
Each year and sometimes twice. 
My dad and I ​– we do everything; 
My dad – he’s really nice 
 
Devices:​ Phyllis C. Michael uses poetic devices to illustrate the close bond between a 
parent and a child. Michael begins by ​repeating t​ he phrase, “My dad and I,” to emphasize 
her father and her as a unit, rather than individuals. Michael uses the same ​rhyme​ scheme, 
ABAC, where the first and third lines in each ​stanza​ rhyme with one another. This gives a 
clear organizational structure for the reader to follow, and by keeping the pacing/tempo 
the same with the rhyme scheme, her poem is easy to follow. Each stanza (1, 2, and 3) each 
focus on a different facet of her relationship with her father. 
 
Analysis: 
The overarching theme connecting the three poems is fatherhood/parenthood. Lebron  
James is in a unique position as a father, because his son is about to enter the NBA as well.  
Each poem demonstrates different facets of fatherhood and talk about the powerful 
relationship between parent and child. The first highlights the realization of realizing your 
child is growing up, in the same way that Lebron must face that his son is an adult entering 
the NBA and may become direct competition. The second poem showcases a child asking 
for advice, and Lebron faces the same dilemma with his son asking for career advice. The 
last poem shows the depth of the bond between parent and child, and Lebron James and 
his son, Lebron James Jr., clearly have the shared interest of basketball, with Lebron James 
Jr. quickly following his father’s footsteps.