I don’t know that this makes a good poem, but it did, I think, have therapeutic value. Know thyself. That’s what Socrates says, anyway. It’s a big job, it turns out. I am outside on a clear day; in woods, or by water, birdsong everywhere, music and good drink, with someonewho loves me, or inContinue reading “#522: An “Epic” Poem in Response to the Proust Questionnaire”
Monthly Archives: April 2024
#521: Sonnet for Project MA
Over the last year and a half or so, I have rediscovered the joy of it, the making of music with a good friend, a friend I had not seen for twenty-five years. From three thousand miles away, he’d begin.He’d send me these tracks, a bass and a click, some keyboard flourishes, and I’d importthemContinue reading “#521: Sonnet for Project MA”
#520: A Sonnet in Response to Anthony Fantano’s Review of “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift, Written in the Second Person, in Service of the Concluding Couplet, and Not to Hide the Fact that I Liked the Record
You try not to be influenced by him;he’s smart, knowledgeable, a bit verbose, but often he’s critical of things you like,and mostly, mostly, you’re okay with that. But his bad review of the new Tay Tay made you doubt your own sense of what is good, made you think you had drunk of the Kool-Aid.HisContinue reading “#520: A Sonnet in Response to Anthony Fantano’s Review of “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift, Written in the Second Person, in Service of the Concluding Couplet, and Not to Hide the Fact that I Liked the Record”
#519: I am not waving, but drowning
(after Stevie Smith) I am not waving, but drowning, and youkeep waving, like an idiot savant,when all I need now is a rescue line, a rope, a tube, anything that will float.Don’t you walk away; I’m not quite dead yet, the water has not yet entered my lungsand I am still gasping my last breathswhileContinue reading “#519: I am not waving, but drowning”
#518: Sonnet After Beers, with Laundry
The washer and the dryer now sing songswhen the cycle is done, and I don’t knowwhy that was a necessary feature, as if it’s not enough to hear them stop. I’m doing laundry in the basement nowafter having had a few I.P.A.sand exhausted late night YouTube views ofcomedy shows and the most recent newsall concerningContinue reading “#518: Sonnet After Beers, with Laundry”
#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes
Don’t quit your day job. It’s good of you, to look after us. But sometimesI wonder if our villainsare so outsized becauseyou are grown so massivewith your flying and yourweb-making and all your fancy gadgets andan armored black suit. Which came first? It strikes me that therewere no Jokers or Penguinsor Luthors or Goblinsuntil youContinue reading “#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes”
#516: It’s a Fight
Author’s Note: This could be the stupidest thing I have ever written. Here’s a poem in response to the prompt to write about a fight between two unlikely combatants. This is what comes, sometimes, of forced creativity. You must write something, even if it’s terrible. In this corner, weighing hardly a quarter of a pound,Continue reading “#516: It’s a Fight”
#515: There’s No Better Place
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. William Shakespeare, sonnet 18 My brother says that our brother in-lawis in a better place, but I hold in my tongueand resist to say out loud what I believe, that there is no better place, unlessContinue reading “#515: There’s No Better Place”
#514: Sonnet about that Contractor
I don’t think about him very often now. What’s done is done and we like the results. Some litigation would have been costlyand there’d be no guarantee of winning. So we filed a complaint against the guyand knew that was the best that we could do. He left a lot of unhappy people in hisContinue reading “#514: Sonnet about that Contractor”
#513: Green
Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire. Patti Smith Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea. Dylan thomas, “Fern Hill” You’re not Dylan Thomas; I’m not Patti Smith. Taylor Swift, “the tortured poet’s department” Green Green with desire, lust in its seven deadly form,the greenContinue reading “#513: Green”
michael jarmer 