“It’s going to be hard to rhyme with ‘Tomlin,’ but I think we can do something with ‘Mike,’” spokesman saysPITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Poetry Society will hold a special symposium March 23-25 to write Steeler slogans for new head coach Mike Tomlin. Well-known Pittsburgh poet Dr. Samuel Hazo made the announcement today. “A slogan can make or break a coach’s career here. It’s too important to leave up to the average fan or sportswriters,” Hazo said. “That’s why we need to involve professional poets. We want to show the general public that poetry can be relevant to their everyday lives.”
The Poetry Society held a similar conference in 1992, when Bill Cowher was selected as head coach. “We came up with ‘Cowher Power’ within the first five minutes. That gave us the rest of the conference time to sit around and drink wine,” Dr. Hazo said, clearly relishing the memory. “Now that was a great conference.”
Hazo admitted that many local poets were rooting for Russ Grimm to get the coaching job. “Russ Grimm has a great name for rhyming. Whisenhut would have been a nightmare for us. Tomlin is a challenge, but I’m confident we can come up with something.” Conference organizers had wanted to schedule the symposium for February, but decided to give society members more “rhyme time,” as they call it, when the Steelers finally made their decision last Sunday.
Hazo also revealed he has written a six-stanza Steeler poem in a simple ABAB rhyme scheme. He declined to read it to reporters, though, saying, “I just submitted it to American Poetry and I don’t want to jinx it.”
