My classroom copy is copiously marked in three or four colors of highlighter and underlined and bracketed and annotated with pen and pencil seven different ways to Sunday. I’ve read and reread and reread this novel perhaps eight or nine times now, but this time I choose a clean, elegant copy over my raggedy-ass classroom copyContinue reading “#234: On Rereading a Clean Copy of Beloved”
Category Archives: Poetry
#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating
(for Scott) Walking the dog, focusing on the breath, in and out, in rhythm with my step, my digital meditation bell ticking away for twenty-five minutes inside my pocket, suddenly I realize that I am missing group meditation. I have to breathe more deeply through the frustration I feel for my forgetful self, meditating and forgettingContinue reading “#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating”
#232: The Writer Dreams of a Debilitating Incompetence
When I don’t drink my dreams are more vivid and sometimes that’s not good. Last night I dreamt I was workshopping a piece of fiction with a large group of super smart writers. I had the manuscript in front of me and I was supposed to read a section of it out loud, but IContinue reading “#232: The Writer Dreams of a Debilitating Incompetence”
#231: A Poem On My 52nd Birthday (with Glasses)
My eye sight’s all right. The only glasses I’ve ever worn were just for show, you know. But at the last check up the doctor gave me a prescription just in case I wanted to see “a little bit better.” I ordered reading glasses instead and received them just in time for my 52nd birthday.Continue reading “#231: A Poem On My 52nd Birthday (with Glasses)”
#230: A Poem of Gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving, America. Here’s a skinny but long list of things for which I am grateful: It’s not January. I could do without the heavy rain making a mud bath of the lawn, but at least, the leaves are finally out of the yard. My son is healthy and, as far as I can tell, happy.Continue reading “#230: A Poem of Gratitude”
#229: Sore Loser Angry White Guy
I am a sore loser angry white guy. I’m sore, yeah, not because my candidate lost, but because THIS guy won. And I’m angry, not because the guy that won was not my candidate, but because THIS particular guy is an inarticulate, stupid, immoral, ignorant, sexist, racist, homophobic, bullying man-baby. And never before in myContinue reading “#229: Sore Loser Angry White Guy”
#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”
#227: What We Did Today
Today we were supposed to administer the PSAT to all sophomores and some juniors, but something went terribly wrong with the test booklets and the college board rescinded the exam. Suddenly, we had a half school day to kill. Our students, most of whom were expecting a day off, were “invited” by our administrators toContinue reading “#227: What We Did Today”
#226: Orlando, Florida
In my classroom, alone, my senior students out already and a small, manageable list of things to do to wrap up the school year, I’ve got more time than I’m used to having and I find myself often thinking of you, Orlando, and looking at photos in an article, “Thousands Attend Vigil to Prove ThatContinue reading “#226: Orlando, Florida”
#225: On Writing Poetry in a Sports Bar
It’s the Lou Rawls they’re playing, which at first I mistake for Barry White, Lou Rawls and the rain, perhaps, that entices me to stay inside, ignoring the 47 inch screens lining every wall, muted today for Lou Rawls, the pinball machines, sports of all sorts, tennis of all sorts, grooving to “you’re gonna miss myContinue reading “#225: On Writing Poetry in a Sports Bar”
michael jarmer 