Decked out in his shoulderpads and assorted football gear, Brandon Graham doesn't look the part of a poet.

But this 227-pound, six-foot fullback is just as likely to break into verse as he is to break into the open. Graham is a senior business major at Sacred Heart University, where he also serves as one of three team captains.

"Brandon is a good example of what college athletics should be about," said Sacred Heart head football coach Jim Fleming. "He is the perfect balance between personal academic interest and extracurricular activities. He is a big, tough, strong guy who is able to perform critical runs."

Fleming also describes Graham as "the cornerstone of the turnaround that's taken place."

The Pioneers were 2-8 and 2-9 for Graham's freshman and sophomore seasons, but last year the team went 10-1. At press time the Pioneers were 9-0 overall and 7-0 in the Northeast Conference. In three and a half seasons, Graham has rushed for more than 1,800 yards, scored 15 touchdowns and also served an important role blocking for all-Northeast Conference tailback Marvin Royal and Pioneers quarterback Justin Holtfreter.

Graham has been reciting and writing poetry since the fifth grade, when he first read a book by poet Richard Dryden. He has pursued poetry seriously since 1997, when he met Nikki Giovanni, a poet and faculty member at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

"(I have) a love for her work not only because she uses her poetry as a form of art and entertainment but also because she uses it as a political voice," Graham said.

Graham uses his life experiences as the subjects for most of his poems, and he attributes the conversational style of his work to Cornell West, a professor at Harvard University who chairs the department of philosophy and heads the Black Studies department.

"He has one of the greatest minds for intellectual studies," Graham said of West.

Graham is working on a book of 59 original poems, and he also is collaborating with fellow student-athletes Royal and David Carlor on a book of poetry they'd like to title "Black Koffee," which would refer to poetry "straight up," like the drink.

In his free time, Graham participates in Sacred Heart's "Read Aloud" program, where football student-athletes read to local elementary school children.

remembering as a child

nothing being more distant

than adulthood

nothing being more troublesome

than simply remembering as a child.