“Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?”—Henry David Thoreau My brother asked me through a facebook comment, are you spending the weekend alone? And I wasn’t sure what the question meant, whether or not it contained a sub-text of surprise or dis-belief: really, on your birthday, you wantContinue reading “#188: On A Birthday Weekend Alone”
Category Archives: Poetry
#187: On the Difficulty of Getting Here
Friday afternoon, trying to prepare for a cabin retreat, a birthday weekend of solitude and reflection and writing, I stepped in a pile of leaf camouflaged dog shit in the driveway. I didn’t realize I had done this until I proceeded to go into the house with shit all over my shoe. I removed theContinue reading “#187: On the Difficulty of Getting Here”
#186: On Writing Retreat
On Writing Retreat, December 5, 2015, L. L. Stub Stewart State Park, Buxton, Oregon It’s raining so hard here, it would be unthinkable to go outside for a walk. So I am stuck in this cabin without internet access and there’s only a few things to do: listen to music, meditate, read, eat, or, theContinue reading “#186: On Writing Retreat”
#63: Pilgrims at the Table
Originally posted on michael jarmer:
The fiction Pilgrims at the Table I understand that on the first Thanksgiving there was no meal between Pilgrims and Indians, there was no peaceful gathering around a turkey or anything in particular having to do with corn, but rather, John Winthrop’s declaration of a “day of thanksgiving” when he…
#185: The American English Teacher Crosses Off All The Items From His To-Do List
He does it. He crosses off all the items from his to-do list. Many of the things he crosses off were things he actually did, others, not so much. But he wants them off the list so he crosses them out. Some of those unfinished-crossed-off items will end up on other to-do lists. Some othersContinue reading “#185: The American English Teacher Crosses Off All The Items From His To-Do List”
#184: The American English Teacher Makes A To-Do List
The number and the analogy may have been different, but I swear I said to at least two of my colleagues today, “Do you ever feel like a web browser with 2,879 tabs open?” And both of these colleagues said the same thing: “All. The. Time.” If I could make a catalogue of allContinue reading “#184: The American English Teacher Makes A To-Do List”
#183: Brain Blimp
Brain Blimp I have painted a painting of you, a portrait, so to speak. I have painted your brain, or rather I have made a painting of your brain. It’s on the wing, so to speak. I’ve portrayed it not as bird but as blimp, powered by rocket box adorned with an eyeball andContinue reading “#183: Brain Blimp”
#182: Child’s Play
My boy has taken to video recording his game play and adding commentary over the top. He’s seen this on you tube. Some of his heroes are dudes who video- tape themselves playing video games, who have become celebrities of sorts; thousands of viewers can’t get enough of dudes playing video games filming them- selves playing video games.Continue reading “#182: Child’s Play”
#181: I Am From Jarmers
On the very first days with my sophomores in the new school year, I asked them to write some goals for themselves, things they wanted to learn or accomplish in the new year in English Language Arts. I gave them the spiel that often goals are stupid things because we allow them to slip awayContinue reading “#181: I Am From Jarmers”
#180: Another “Workable” Solution
It turns out that the brave colleague who volunteered to teach five preparations in order to relieve another colleague of a student load of 217 did not, after all, have to take on five preparations. Instead, two of her small classes were swapped straight across with two of the other teacher’s giant classes. These movesContinue reading “#180: Another “Workable” Solution”
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