michaeljarmer

Who’s Counting? Three

One is the loneliest number–so say Three Dog Night. However, three (the pop rock trio must have known), is a magical number. It’s lucky. Good things come in threes. Three Dog Night. Rush. The Police. Three times the charm. Three bears. The father, son, and the holy ghost. Mind, body, spirit. Three is time-tied: beginning,Continue reading “Who’s Counting? Three”

Who’s Counting? Four

Four Cardinal directions. Four gospels. Four horsemen. Four Beatles. Four Monkees. Four seasons. Four beats in a bar of 4/4. Four more days in the school year. Three days with students and a single work day for teachers, culminating awkwardly on a Tuesday. Four days until I count myself officially a “retiree.” First up onContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Four”

Who’s Counting? Five

The side effects from my second booster lingered all the way through the day yesterday, so that by the time I went to bed, I felt worse than I had all day. After another bout with some chills and uncontrollable shaking, another somewhat feverish night’s sleep, I wake up feeling almost normal on this fifthContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Five”

Who’s Counting? Six

I said I wasn’t counting the days until retirement. In fact, it’s been a point of pride for me. Look, I seem to be saying, I don’t know how many days are left in the school year and isn’t that special? But, as it gets close enough to poke with a stick and impossible toContinue reading “Who’s Counting? Six”

Notes On Retirement

As I approach the last work week of a 33 year career in public education, I find myself looking for a way to write about that experience and falling short of figuring out what to say and how to say it. I started one blog essay which attempted to explore my rationale for retirement, butContinue reading “Notes On Retirement”

#438: Human Nature (a cento on April 30, 2022)

As it is the very last day of April, hence, the last day of National Poetry Writing Month, I kind of wanted to go out with a bang–to do something ambitious. That’s the worst way, FYI, to begin a writing thing. “Today I am going to do something great” is a path to abject failure.Continue reading “#438: Human Nature (a cento on April 30, 2022)”

#437: Gifts and Curses (the penultimate poem, April 29, 2022)

“We are disabused of original giftedness in the first half of our lives. Then — if we are awake, aware, and able to admit our loss — we spend the second half trying to recover and reclaim the gift we once possessed.” Parker J. Palmer Gifts and Curses Parker J. Palmer asks us to reclaimContinue reading “#437: Gifts and Curses (the penultimate poem, April 29, 2022)”

#436: One More (I Promise, the Last) Metaphor Dice Poem on April 28, 2022

poetry. sacrosanct. midwife. Thirty days has the cruelest monthand thirty days in a row for nine yearsduring April I have written a poem.I try and mostly fail to communicateto my students the worth of such a thing, poetry in and of itself, yes, let alonewriting one every day for thirty days, but they don’t quiteContinue reading “#436: One More (I Promise, the Last) Metaphor Dice Poem on April 28, 2022”

#435: A Metaphor Dice Concrete Poem for April 28, 2022

I intended this month to write a poem inspired by Taylor Mali’s metaphor dice that would be suitable for submission to The Golden Die Contest, the deadline for which is two days away. This isn’t it. This isn’t the one, neither is the earlier one I wrote this month. But I’ve been sitting on thisContinue reading “#435: A Metaphor Dice Concrete Poem for April 28, 2022”

#434: Buying a Shed (a duplex on April 27, 2022)

Here’s a poem called a duplex, a sonnet variation developed by the poet Jericho Brown. It’s 14 lines long–and it follows a pattern of partial repetition in the first line of each stanza of the second line of the preceding stanza. Except that the first line and the last line must be the same. AContinue reading “#434: Buying a Shed (a duplex on April 27, 2022)”