He stirs in the middle of the night, suddenly certain there are speeches in the play that he’s missed, didn’t even know were his, and on which he has not yet begun to work–days before dress rehearsal. In his sleep these lines appear with vivid specificity; he can hear the words and see the typeface and they seem every bit as realContinue reading “#196: The Actor’s Nightmare”
Author Archives: michaeljarmer
#195: Curtains
I hold her body in my arms, dead and not dead, my child and not my child. I am Lord Capulet and Kate is Juliet. In life we are virtual strangers, but on stage, I hold her in my arms and under the hot stage lights I weep for her death, or close to it. IContinue reading “#195: Curtains”
#194: On the Occasion of Working an Eight Hour Teaching Day and then Moving Directly to a Five Hour Rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet and Not Having Time to Write a Poem
In this moment I sit in the green room and write a poem when I should be working my lines.
#193: A Meditation on Missing a Day of Meditation After 28 Consecutive Days of Meditation
I woke up this morning with a kind of sinking feeling: something was amiss; and then I realized that yesterday I did not meditate. I missed my first day of meditation after 28 consecutive days of meditation. So, while I meditated this morning, it was difficult to quiet the mind, difficult to appease the internalContinue reading “#193: A Meditation on Missing a Day of Meditation After 28 Consecutive Days of Meditation”
#192: April is Not the Cruelest Month
April is Not the Cruelest Month There’s nothing cruel about April, except for the fact that it’s not May, and the only problem with May is that it’s not June. June may be, in my humble opinion, the kindest month of all. If I had to choose, though, a replacement for T.S. Eliot’s cruelest (what was heContinue reading “#192: April is Not the Cruelest Month”
#191: On Walking Through My Neighborhood, Currently Under Construction, With the Time-Lapse Camera on My Phone
For day three of National Poetry Writing Month, I take a walk through my neighborhood, currently under construction, with a time lapse camera. Here’s the poem I harvested on the experience. On Walking Through My Neighborhood, Currently Under Construction, With the Time Lapse Camera on My Phone “And it goes fast; you think of the past:Continue reading “#191: On Walking Through My Neighborhood, Currently Under Construction, With the Time-Lapse Camera on My Phone”
#190: Wheels
For day #2 of napowrimo, I offer up a found poem, a poem that steals its text wholesale from some other non-poetic source, say, a newspaper article, or a sign, or the print on a cereal box. While the general rule of thumb is to find text that is innocent of even remotely being like poetry, I’veContinue reading “#190: Wheels”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XI, Letter F
What follows is a continuing exploration of all the music in my cd collection for which the artist or the band name begins with the letter F. Let’s begin with this. F this. Fishbone and The Flaming Lips, Ben Folds Five, bookends or markers for my 1990’s, perhaps the three most influential and inspiring bands forContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XI, Letter F”
#189: Writing A Lune With My Students
Well, hello, and welcome to the annual poetry writing extravaganza in celebration of National Poetry Month during which suckers like myself attempt to write and publish a poem every day during the merry merry month of April. My first outing follows the instructions (optional as always) found on the National Poetry Writing Month website, where eachContinue reading “#189: Writing A Lune With My Students”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume X, Letter F
Happy and Totally Belated New Year, everyone. It appears that I took the entire months of January and February off from blogging. 2016 finds me having barely survived the first semester of my 28th year of teaching (which, disappointingly, turns out to be only my 26th), feeling gratitude for a new beginning with new classes,Continue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume X, Letter F”
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