Author Archives: michaeljarmer

#753: No, THIS Is Just To Say

This Is Just To SayBY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold You sonofabitch, now what am I supposed to eat for breakfast? There’s nothing else in the fridge. I might haveContinue reading “#753: No, THIS Is Just To Say”

#752: Dayton, Ohio, 2026

There are drummers everywhere in Dayton, Ohio, behind the Target, in the parking lots of hotels, inside and outside churches, in the lots of abandoned shopping malls, in the lobby of the Hampton where we’re staying, and tomorrow morning, they will be at the free continental breakfast. There’s no escaping them. They’re like the beesContinue reading “#752: Dayton, Ohio, 2026”

#751: J is for Japanese Breakfast

Even though the two albumsI have from Japanese Breakfastare titled after opposites on the emotional spectrum, jubilation and melancholy, when I listen to Michelle Zauner’s music, my own emotions run to the former of the two. Even the sadsongs evoke joy for me. I maybe wiping tears from the corners, but there is at theContinue reading “#751: J is for Japanese Breakfast”

#750: I Know a Poet

I know a poet who (years ago) createda software program that could write poems. As an experiment, he brought those poemsto a workshop and pretended they were his. People were pissed at him. They invested their time and their critical acumen to helpthis writer with his poetry and they felt hoodwinked and were not atContinue reading “#750: I Know a Poet”

#749: Landscapes

You and your landscapes! Isn’t that a quote from Beckett? I don’t know, but that’s how I feelthis morning after looking at the poetry prompt from NaPoWriMo,after that dream I had last nightabout doing a show to which noone came. When I was a teacher, I had dreams about failures in the classroom. I sometimesContinue reading “#749: Landscapes”

#748: We Called Him Uncle Meany

Jerry was wild and funny, had a tremendously deviouslaugh, joyful, playful, but for some reason we all called himUncle Meany. He was Dad’s uncle, really, but only a year or twoolder, so there was nothing second or great uncle about him,and there seemed to be nothing mean about him either.In the summer he’d take usoutContinue reading “#748: We Called Him Uncle Meany”

#747: Marcus Aurelius, Redacted

Marcus Aurelius, Redacted Letting go, cling. Remember this fleetinginstant gone, or revealed. This mortal little thinglived in a corner; and little, too, is the longest dependentsuccession of fast-perishingselves, much less, long dead.  The source: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book III, section 10 Letting go all else, cling to the following few truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant:Continue reading “#747: Marcus Aurelius, Redacted”

#745: The Dog Speaks of Cognition

You wonder what I’m thinking. When necessary, I try to be clearand you understand my cues. I need to eat or go outside. I want a walk. I need a snack, damn it. Those other dogspiss me off. I would really like to catch that squirrel. It’s during the down times, the quiet moments, whenContinue reading “#745: The Dog Speaks of Cognition”

#744: I Am No

I am no psychologist. I often find myself in my fictionwriting scenes in which characterssay, either out loud or as a thought, that they are no something or another. I am no psychologist. I can’t be using that phrase in every single book that I write. I am no historian. That would be like aContinue reading “#744: I Am No”