A St. Paul writer is the poet laureate of pickleball

Baseball fans might read “Casey at the Bat.”

Runners have “To an Athlete Dying Young.”

Basketball star Kobe Bryant wrote an ode to his sport called “Dear Basketball.”

And now there’s a poem celebrating pickleball. Actually, there are 80 of them.

The muse stirred as she absorbed the cultural quirks of the game and the wide diversity of players she encountered at her home court at St. Paul’s Edgcumbe Recreation Center.

“You see all walks of life. There are so many funny things that happen on the court that it feeds my creativity,” she said. “I just started writing these poems.”

After about six months of playing and writing, she had 80 poems.

“I was so obsessed with pickleball that I could think about something about pickleball and I’d say, ‘I’m going to write this down,’” Johnson said.

In 2024, she self-published the poems under the imprint of Fourscore Poems. The poems come with small cartoon drawings that Johnson did of her observations of the sport.

“I think it’s like a celebration of the game,” she said.

So far, she’s sold about 400 copies of the $12.99 book online and at retailers like Big Hill Books in Minneapolis, Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul and Barnes & Noble in the Galleria in Edina.

Johnson said buyers from Japan, Canada, India and the United Kingdom have found the book, which is often purchased as a gift for a pickleball-crazed relative or friend.

She said readers “find it funny. Even the thought of it.”

Some of Johnson’s poems are pickleball-themed homages of famous poems. “The Paddle Not Chosen,” for example, was inspired by Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”

One simply called “Pickleball” is inspired by William Carlos Williams’ “Red Wheelbarrow.”

Some of the poems are inspired by actual people Johnson has played with. Some comment on pickleball injuries or observe how tennis courts are often empty these days as pickleball has ridden a wave of popularity. Johnson used to play tennis when she was younger.

Being in Minnesota, several poems inevitably are about coping with weather conditions. And some poems are about peculiarities of the sport, like the temptation to apologize to your teammate every time you muff a shot.

“That’s kind of a pickleball joke,” Johnson said. “You can’t stop saying ‘Sorry.’ There’s no sorry in pickleball.”

“You either laugh a lot or apologize a lot,” said Aimée Bissonette, of the pickleball experience.

She’s a fellow writer who plays pickleball with Johnson. She’s given the poetry book to her brother and sister-in-law, who also play.

“These poems are hysterical. We all see ourselves or our friends in the poems,” Bissonette said. “It captures the experience. We’ve all fallen. We’ve all biffed.”

Johnson’s work isn’t the only piece of literature inspired by pickleball. There are pickleball romance novels, pickleball murder mysteries, pickleball humor books. There’s also at least one other pickleball poetry book.

And Johnson’s book probably won’t be the last word on pickleball poetry.

“I haven’t written off the idea of another one, because there’s more to be said,” she said.

Johnson will give a talk and a book signing called “What’s So Funny About Pickleball?” on July 24 from 6:30-8 p.m. at Big Hill Books in Minneapolis. The event will include a pickleball serving lesson.