The Dads and Sons of Summer
- Allan Shedlin
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
Guest Poetry by E. Ethelbert Miller
Poet, Writer, Teacher, and Literary Activist
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following original poem from our dear friend, baseball lover, and frequent Daddying blog contributor E. Ethelbert Miller adds the perfect amount of daddying cool to a summer dominated by hot temps and MLB pennant chases. We thank Ethelbert for generously allowing us to debut this fresh work of baseball goodness here on this week's blog:
JUST OUR GLOVES
We always bring our gloves to the game.
My father and I love the game and we long
to catch a ball. The sun- sky high hot on our faces. Every inning our sweat sadly reminds us we will head back home without a foul ball smiling in the pocket of our gloves. I punch my fist into the soft lonely leather. My father’s arm around my shoulder. I look into his eyes and see a scoreboard of love.
~ E. Ethelbert Miller
Daddying Film Festival & Forum (D3F)
The Daddying Film Festival & Forum (D3F) 2027 Call for Entries is rolling all summer long on FilmFreeway! Students (3rd grade-undergrad), Dads/Granddads, Moms/Grandmoms, dad figures, Parenting Podcasters, Musicians, and indie filmmakers can submit films, videos, and podcast episodes through November 23, 2026!
Since 2022, we've received submissions from 60+ countries and we're excited to present another amazing collection of the best daddying stories submitted by students, Dads/dad figs, Moms, and indie filmmakers from around the world! Check the D3F website or our FilmFreeway page for more inspiration, submission details, and Atticus Award winning films from previous years!
SAVE THE DATES: The 6th annual, virtual Daddying Film Festival will take place on Eventive, January 11-20, 2027, and our LIVE Daddying Film Forum, at American University in Washington, DC, will screen select Atticus Award winners and finalists, January 29-30, 2027.
The Washington Post once called E. Ethelbert Miller, "arguably the most influential person in Washington's vast and vibrant African American arts community. And perhaps its most unappreciated." Miller is a poet, writer, teacher, literary activist, and frequent contributor to the Daddying blog. He is the author of two memoirs, including Fathering Words: The Making of An African American Writer, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022 with a reprinting, and several books of poetry, including The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller, which celebrates more than 40 years of his work. For 17 years, Miller served as the editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine published in the United States. His poetry has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Miller is a two-time Fulbright Senior Specialist Program Fellow to Israel. He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature from Emory and Henry College and has taught at several universities. Miller hosts the weekly WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and is a producer of The Scholars on UDC-TV. Miller was inducted into the 2015 Washington, DC, Hall of Fame, awarded the 2016 AWP George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature, and presented the 2016 DC Mayor’s Arts Award for "Distinguished Honor." In 2018, he was inducted into Gamma Xi Phi and appointed as an ambassador for the Authors Guild. Miller’s most recent book, If God Invented Baseball, earned the 2019 Literary Award for poetry by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
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