Monthly Archives: April 2018

#316: Chakras and Chi Balls (the Last Poem of April)

Some people associate a rainbow of colors with various parts of their bodies and they ascribe certain powers or characteristics of their psycho-emotional life to these various colors or energies; Some people think you can concentrate on a color, say, orange, and a body place, say, your privates, and that somehow your relationships will beContinue reading “#316: Chakras and Chi Balls (the Last Poem of April)”

#315: On the Penultimate Day of April, the English Teacher in his Penultimate Year Writes a Long Rambling Poem Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s Burst of Productivity in the Months Before She Died

I’m not going anywhere, but (having lost now both mom and dad) I notice thoughts about mortality enter the noggin with more frequency these days. I’m reading, or rather, listening to Life Reimagined, where Barbara Bradley Hagerty argues essentially that there is really no such thing as a mid-life crisis for most mid-lifers. Much of thatContinue reading “#315: On the Penultimate Day of April, the English Teacher in his Penultimate Year Writes a Long Rambling Poem Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s Burst of Productivity in the Months Before She Died”

#314: To Whom It May Concern

To Whom It May Concern Wherever You Are City, State, Zip Code Hello to Whom, I think this may concern you. I’ve been thinking about you, lately more than usual, I guess, ever since the weather turned. There’s been a disturbance. It’s been too long. That thing people say on postcards: I wish you wereContinue reading “#314: To Whom It May Concern”

#313: The World Is Too Much All Up in Here

(my advance apologies to anyone serious about this stuff, and to Wordsworth) My world card tells me that I’ve got time in my pinky, a king on my ring, twenty one flip-off capacity, death in my forefinger, and a sun up my thumb. But I’ve got the whole world, as the song says, in myContinue reading “#313: The World Is Too Much All Up in Here”

#312: Senses Working Overtime

Unseasonably warm on this 26th of April, 86° in the shade, giving new meaning to “the cruelest month” moniker, and I’m biking home from work, still in work clothes, feeling myself try to crawl out of them, the sun beating down on my back as I pedal home. It’s a short ride, but long enough.Continue reading “#312: Senses Working Overtime”

#311: Warning

Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate anything in this room. This bag is not a toy. This thing right here: do not eat. Watch your step. If symptoms persist, consult your physician. I am out of band-aids. Men below, please don’t throw. Slow children. This hand sanitizer is flammable. Think about that for a minute.Continue reading “#311: Warning”

#310: An Elegy for the Essay in English

I read his essay out loud the way it appeared on the page. In about five hundred words the student used two paragraphs, and, beyond a single period at the end of the first paragraph, used no commas, no semi-colons or colons, no dashes, no quotation marks, and no more periods, not even at theContinue reading “#310: An Elegy for the Essay in English”

#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better

All day I had Morrissey’s voice in my head after 5 albums worth of The Queen is Dead, the original album and eight sides of bonus and the lyrics to the song “I Know It’s Over” percolating and reverberating everywhere and again; it was almost too much to bear. I walked up and down hallwaysContinue reading “#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better”

#308: An Attempted Explanation

As soon as I decided not to go shopping for music the second day in a row, my car horn alarm went off and I couldn’t get it to stop. I sat there in the car, parked, engine running, horn blasting, poking and pushing every conceivable control surface, even the ones I knew wouldn’t work,Continue reading “#308: An Attempted Explanation”