michaeljarmer

#433: An Epic Simile for the School Year (a poem on April 26, 2022)

This school year is flying bylike a bullet train at lightning speed,its passengers securely buckled in, or, even, despite incrediblerates of acceleration, move freely inside the cabins as if they werestanding stock still, sipping theirdrinks, forking their hors d’oeuvres,oblivious to the fact that they are moving at 200 miles per hour.I think, but I amContinue reading “#433: An Epic Simile for the School Year (a poem on April 26, 2022)”

#432: Teaching Nightmares (a poem on April 25, 2022)

You would thinkthat after 33 yearsof classroom teaching,one would cease to have nightmaresabout teaching.You would be wrong to think that. Sometimes they comerandomly here and there, once or twice a year, and mostly they’re easyto shake off. But sometimesthey come, spawned, one imagines, by a real-lifeclassroom nightmarethat becomes obsessive, on which the educator-brain becomes stuck,asContinue reading “#432: Teaching Nightmares (a poem on April 25, 2022)”

#431: Don’t Want To Write a Poem on April 24, 2022

It took 24 days,but finally, I don’t wantto write a poem. It’s not unusualin a run of 30 daysduring the Aprilmonth to have such a feelingsooner or later. Nothing appeals: the prompt doesn’t interest, the mindis tired, or, in mycase, unsettled, distracted; What ISunusual, is the intensity of my resistance today. I just don’t wanttoContinue reading “#431: Don’t Want To Write a Poem on April 24, 2022”

#430: A Poem in the Style of Kay Ryan on April 23, 2022

Crocodiles and Bears are having a field day,a great yield of playfulshenanigan in suburbanstreets and insidepeoples’ homes. They may be tryingto tell us something.Like: hey, this usedto belong to me. Or: hey, now you knowhow it feels to be a bear or a crocodile.I would not be surprisedif, in bear or crocodilelanguage, the word forContinue reading “#430: A Poem in the Style of Kay Ryan on April 23, 2022”

#429: My Friend the Media Specialist (a poem on April 22, 2022)

My friend the media specialist(we used to call them librarians)gifted me this morning a prompt for a poem. My friend the media specialistsays the word “precarity” might make a good subject. “Precarity,” I say. “Is that likethe feeling or state of precariousness?” My friend the media specialistsays, “Yes, precarious, uncertain,tentative, vulnerable, transitory, dependent on chance.”Continue reading “#429: My Friend the Media Specialist (a poem on April 22, 2022)”

#428: Curly, Dunkin Donuts, and that Bosch Painting (another poem on April 21, 2022)

I miss my best friend from high school.His name was either Jeff, McBee, McTimmonsor McSeven, depending on a variety of variables, none of which were his choosing.My parents called him Curlybecause he got a perm once and the curls, years later, were still there. We listened to music all the timeand together we got drunkContinue reading “#428: Curly, Dunkin Donuts, and that Bosch Painting (another poem on April 21, 2022)”

#427: A Poem from Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” on April 21, 2022

I hear the American High Schoolsinging, the varied carols I hear: students sing their waydown the hallways andinto classrooms, where, sometimes, they stop singing, quiet, headsdown, depressed or exhausted–other timesthe singing never ceasesand their verses and chorusespercolate and resonate througheach 87 minute period.I hear the teachers sing their teaching voices, singing their lessonsunceasingly, tirelessly, musteringContinue reading “#427: A Poem from Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” on April 21, 2022″

#426: The Veteran American English Teacher Reads an Inspirational Book for New Teachers (a poem on April 20, 2022)

The Veteran American English Teacherfinds this thing, Apples and Chalkdust, InspirationalStories and Encouragement for Teachers, among the effects that another teacherleft behind years ago in his third or fourthyear of teaching, leaving the professionto work in a winery. Inscribed to him, It was a gift from a student or the parents of a student, whoContinue reading “#426: The Veteran American English Teacher Reads an Inspirational Book for New Teachers (a poem on April 20, 2022)”

#425: Instructions for Winning (a poem on April 19, 2022)

Get out of the way. Get out of your own way. You’re in the way. The only trouble, the only obstacle, the only real competitionis you. It’s become a cliché, hackneyed, overdone, a truism that neverthelessholds true–unless, of course, it doesn’t. And there may be times and places where and when whatever is stoppingyou fromContinue reading “#425: Instructions for Winning (a poem on April 19, 2022)”

#424: Five Answers to the Same Question (a poem for April 18, 2022)

I In a sense, yes. II In another sense, perhaps in the sense with which you mean it,no. IIIMaybe. A good word. Ambiguity is everything–and nothing. IVI like the cut of your jib. VI hadn’t considered it, but I will take it up with the management.