Remember that on July 3rd we campers were treated here at Mt. Holyoke College to a fireworks display of stupendous proportions. Yesterday, on the 4th of July, it was quiet. I’m not kidding. After the reading I sat on an Adirondack chair in the dark sipping whiskey in the middle of the lawn and IContinue reading “Dispatches from Writer’s Camp: The Next Frontier”
Category Archives: Culture
Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light
Last year, I remember talking in my classroom about the terrible news, the deaths of two British cultural icons, both personal heroes of mine, David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both dead at 69. And from that discussion, this has remained in my memory: a student actually said these words to me, “So you’ve got about twentyContinue reading “Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light”
#239: 24 Hours, No Facebook, No News Redux (Inauguration Day, 2017)
It’s inauguration day and I have once again sworn off Facebook and any internet news or television media for 24 hours. All I know is that my son watched the thing in his 5th grade classroom today and he said some kids and his teacher were crying. He and a friend, he said, were angry and felt thatContinue reading “#239: 24 Hours, No Facebook, No News Redux (Inauguration Day, 2017)”
#236: Media Fast, Anyone?
I cannot help it. I can’t look away. It’s a train wreck, a complete cluster, and every morning begins with the same question: What’s the outrage of the day? And now that I’m on a holiday break I’ve got something like free time to keep checking in on the downfall of my civilization. I thinkContinue reading “#236: Media Fast, Anyone?”
#228: On the Day After the Election
Having wept myself to sleep the night before, I got up and went to work in the school house where we met in small teams in the library to plan or do curriculum work or talk about assessments, where instead I chose to color with crayons at the table our new librarian set up forContinue reading “#228: On the Day After the Election”
Melt The Guns
For those of you who have been following my project of listening to my music collection from A to Z and writing reflections on each album: no, I am not jumping ahead from D to X. Instead, inspired by a friend of mine posting this tune in Facebook on the day we learned of yetContinue reading “Melt The Guns”
A Single Dispatch from Writer’s Camp 2015
It’s quiet on campus. Everyone has gone home. It’s just me and Mark, the dorm all to ourselves. He’s here still because he can’t travel on the Sabbath. I’m here to simply take a few deep breaths, to take advantage of some solitude before heading home. I went down to the cafeteria tonight for dinner,Continue reading “A Single Dispatch from Writer’s Camp 2015”
#177: Trigger Warning
Trigger Warning: The following poem may contain upsetting material. The poet wants to warn you about it in advance so you can decide whether or not to proceed, knowing full well that you might be upset by the poem’s contents. It has become the convention of late for writers, for readers, for teachers of writingContinue reading “#177: Trigger Warning”
A Talk at the 2015 Rex Putnam High School Graduation Ceremony
Class of 2015: Good morning! Many of you have seen a music video on youtube in which a young man wearing a yellow suit, a blue bow tie, and beige converse high tops, bounces up and down, gestures maniacally, and moves rhythmically in a way that sort of resembles “dancing;” his eye make-up is sweatingContinue reading “A Talk at the 2015 Rex Putnam High School Graduation Ceremony”
#157: A Spectacular Cat Gif
Pretend, for a moment, this poem is a spectacular cat gif, and you like it. You like it very much. You like your liking it, and you share or reblog, perhaps you’ll even tweet, instagram, or vine; you’ll repost in every imaginable format and your friends will follow and follow, like and like, to theContinue reading “#157: A Spectacular Cat Gif”
michael jarmer 