The Art of the Lie I am in full agreementthat John Grant is no namefor a rock star, and yet, he is, nevertheless, a rock star to me,and his most recent album, The Art of the Lie,has been in consistent, heavyrotation. I listened to it todayin the car as I drove to Pure LifeClinic forContinue reading “#547: The Art of the Lie”
Category Archives: Poetry
#546: Étude for Not Writing a Poem
I don’t know what to say. I have never before, in the eleven previous years of participation in National Poetry Writing Month, experienced such intense internal resistance to writing a poem–ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH! I can’t explain it. Usually I am fired up and I jump out of the starting gate withContinue reading “#546: Étude for Not Writing a Poem”
Two Days Until National Poetry Writing Month: Ekphrastic Fest?
On this 30th day of March, we find ourselves only two days away from National Poetry Writing Month, during which we creative types are encouraged to compose a poem a day every day for the entire month of April. I can safely (but humbly) brag about the fact that I have completed this task ofContinue reading “Two Days Until National Poetry Writing Month: Ekphrastic Fest?”
On the Eighteenth Day of 2025…
…I have broken the record from January 2024 by writing eighteen days in a row toward the goal of blogging every day during the first month of the new year, attempting each day to string together a few hundred to a thousand words that form coherent sentences and ideas. I’ve tried to vary the shoeContinue reading “On the Eighteenth Day of 2025…”
#545: How to Move Forward
Today I spent several hours moving the leaves around the yard.Our house is surrounded by gigantic oaks and every year we get absolutely buried. Because I can only afford to hiresomeone a few times a year, every November I begin the workof prepping for leaf removal by a great and laborious shifting. I blow leavesContinue reading “#545: How to Move Forward”
#544: Dear America, Happy 4th of July
I have startedto despise Bill Maher, but when he sayshe’d rather vote for Biden’s head in a jar than seeTrump in the White House, I’m with himagain. I hate this place, where we are, with this choice, but I know at leastthat Biden is agood man and I am confident he’ssurrounded by menand women whoareContinue reading “#544: Dear America, Happy 4th of July”
#543: On Being Turned Away from the Doctor’s Office for My Blood Pressure Checkup and How That Ultimately Raised My Blood Pressure
I was 15 minutes late. Actually, the truth of the matteris that I was not 15 minutes early. So they turned me away. I knew the expectation. They only sent me three or four reminders, but when your appointmentis for 7:30 a.m.,and you’re supposed to show up at 7:15,when you’re retired, and you want toContinue reading “#543: On Being Turned Away from the Doctor’s Office for My Blood Pressure Checkup and How That Ultimately Raised My Blood Pressure”
#542: On the Note Wendell Hawken Wrote to Me, the One I’ve Been Using as a Bookmark in Her Book of Poems
The note she wrote to me almost a year ago, the one I’ve been using as a bookmark as I’m reading her poems, says: “Michael – thought I was out, but I found one.” Even though it doesn’t take me long to remember what she was trying to say, I love the ambiguity of itContinue reading “#542: On the Note Wendell Hawken Wrote to Me, the One I’ve Been Using as a Bookmark in Her Book of Poems”
#541: A Squirrel Bites My Dog
My little terrier, miniature greyhound mutt, had it coming. This rodent with a stump of a tail, running along the fence, decides to come down into the yard where I am napping on the hammock and my two dogs are likewise lounging. The small dog is onto the squirrel first while the larger shepherd-lab-husky muttContinue reading “#541: A Squirrel Bites My Dog”
#540: Masturbation Is Not A Thing
Here’s a poem I drafted quite a while ago, I think, while I was still teaching, that I was too hesitant about publishing, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but because this classroom inspired story was too recent, too close, and I might have been gun shy as the result of an earlier experienceContinue reading “#540: Masturbation Is Not A Thing”
michael jarmer 