Shaun Ranft is a Lake Effect sports contributor and the former editor of the website The Sports Post. But as much as he loves sports, Ranft says his true writing passion has always leaned in a more creative direction — specifically poetry.
Ranft joined Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski in the studio to share how he came to love creative writing, and to read the first of many poems he will contribute in the future:
stunning, desperately disengaged;
can you feel the change in the tracks?
a step to the right is you and yours.
a step to the left is shrouded in simplicity.
a step back signals suppressed silhouettes.
a step forward to claim your prize:
a glance at these cliche' crystal eyes.
here rests a girl who is who she is
because of who she is yet she sees
what she sees because she cannot
see what sits in front of her.
do not love because you do not love,
you cannot love if
you cannot live in love
with the life you leave behind.
I'm calling. into. you. do not. call. into
true love through empty sidewalks,
street-sweepers silently serenading
the shadows who walk among the living.
here sleeps a girl who cannot tie
the lie together with eternal. forever.
never-opened eyes tried to peer inside
the clever lever that is severed.
we only wake up when we sleep.
the distress of your dress
the seams in my dreams
emotional is you
irrational is me.
love. you know.
this is where
you need to be.
watching, walking within your hands;
can you feel the change in the tracks?
