I have admitted in previous entries that I am a relatively slow reader. I read well, I think, but slowly. Perhaps I’m a better reader because of it. But because I love reading, and because I have the English major’s obsession with a list of things I want to (and think I should) read, IContinue reading “The Book I Read: Books as Gifts, The Hidden Life of Fifteen Dogs, and Budgie Danger”
Author Archives: michaeljarmer
Introducing: The Book I Read (a podcast by Michael Jarmer Writer Guy)
(What follows is a text version of the first Michael Jarmer Writer Guy podcast. It’s gonna be short and sweet–a tiny little trailer to introduce listeners to the new thing and to spell out a few tantalizing descriptors and some enticements for listening and subscribing and perhaps even donating to the cause. If you’re justContinue reading “Introducing: The Book I Read (a podcast by Michael Jarmer Writer Guy)”
On Starting a Podcast, Because, Why Not?
All through April and into the summer months, I noticed something new in my publishing options on my WordPress blog: hey! you can turn this blog entry into a podcast! It was an intriguing idea for me, for one, because I enjoy reading out loud, think I have a pretty good knack for it, andContinue reading “On Starting a Podcast, Because, Why Not?”
The Book I Read: Rock Star Fiction, Erasure, and Mother Love
(Books discussed in this blog: Wolf in White Van, John Darneille; Her Read, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Paddock, Mary Lou Buschi) In April of 2019 I thought I would begin a series of book review blog entries titled after one of my favorite early Talking Heads songs, “The Book I Read.” So I did that.Continue reading “The Book I Read: Rock Star Fiction, Erasure, and Mother Love”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #29
It’s hot. Is it hot? It’s hot in here. It’s hot out there. It’s so hot. Squirrels are dying. Baby hummingbirds are abandoned. The crows are clearly pissed. For three days in a row Portland saw temperatures in triple digits—three record breaking days in a row. The fourth day promised to be a chilly 97Continue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #29”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #28
Here are some details about a typical Saturday over the last month or so: I’ll have a leisurely morning, drink coffee, eat a light breakfast, walk the dogs, make plans for the yard, eat a heavier lunch, drop off cans at the bottle drop, buy records at the curbside of Music Millennium, dog bones atContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #28”
#403: Poem on April 30, 2021
It’s always astounding to me, when I set myself the task of writing a poem a day for a month, and then each day becomes marked by a poem, how quickly the month seems to pass. Thirty poems seems like a lot of poems. Thirty days seems like a lot of days. It’s not. You’dContinue reading “#403: Poem on April 30, 2021”
#402: Poem on April 29, 2021
Poem on April 29 The best thing I could dofor myself this morning: spin Scary Monstersin the empty classroom before the students arrived,timing “Ashes to Ashes” and “Fashion” just for the moment as the first group of kids came throughthe doors of A-9.That was a good way to begin. What has felt like a weekofContinue reading “#402: Poem on April 29, 2021”
#401: Poem on April 28, 2021
Including today, there are three more days left of National Poetry Writing Month. I’ve made it this far and I haven’t missed a day. In previous years, while I always made it to 30, sometimes I would have to cheat a little and publish two poems in a single day. I cheated not a singleContinue reading “#401: Poem on April 28, 2021”
#400: Poem on April 27, 2021
Today seems like a milestone day. 400 poems, for instance. It’s taken 8 years, but that doesn’t seem too shabby of a record. That’s 50 poems a year. And here’s a smaller number, but a milestone, nevertheless: I have made it through the first two days–or one time through the entire schedule–of hybrid teaching. I’mContinue reading “#400: Poem on April 27, 2021”