How Discussion of The Great Gatsby Gets Totally Derailed by a Big Spider It’s happened before: bug gets into the room and distracts the students, rightfully so, because it’s like, you know, a bug. Today it’s a spider, a really big one, as the teacher tries to tease out this delicious bit in the novelContinue reading “#34: How Discussion of The Great Gatsby Gets Totally Derailed by a Big Spider”
Category Archives: Poetry
#33: After Teacher Appreciation Week
After Teacher Appreciation Week On Monday, several dozens of cookies were placed in the staff lounge, a gift from our secretaries and support staff. On Friday morning, the administrators served us hot coffee and fruit and pastries. We were still trying to polish off the cookies in the staff lounge, some of which are stillContinue reading “#33: After Teacher Appreciation Week”
#32: Gatsby? What Gatsby?
Gatsby? What Gatsby? is what Daisy says when she hears Jordan Baker mention the name to Nick, and it’s what teenagers used to say before they knew Leonardo DiCaprio was starring in the new Baz Luhrmann film. Suddenly, now, they want to read this novel because they recognize the name and because Leonardo is starring inContinue reading “#32: Gatsby? What Gatsby?”
#31: The American English Teacher Critiques His Own Poetry
Either he’s a Stat Blip Junky or he just can’t give up the poetry, one or the other. In the following blog entry, the American English Teacher decides to keep writing poetry even though National Poetry Writing Month is over. The American English Teacher Critiques His Own Poetry I’m no T.S. Eliot, he says, pouringContinue reading “#31: The American English Teacher Critiques His Own Poetry”
Forced Creativity Experiences (Only the Bad and the Ugly)
In my last blog entry, I waxed lovingly about the benefits and the necessary prerequisites to submitting oneself to a Forced Creativity Experience such as the National Novel or Poetry Writing Months in November and April, respectively, and my experience in a songwriting circle that does a similar thing in the musical realm. I subtitledContinue reading “Forced Creativity Experiences (Only the Bad and the Ugly)”
Forced Creativity Experiences (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)
April concludes and the new month begins with my successful participation in the National Poetry Month challenge of writing a poem a day for 30 days. I’m happy to say that I missed not a single day and that all 30 poems are posted here at michaeljarmer.com for your reading pleasure. I thought I wouldContinue reading “Forced Creativity Experiences (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)”
#30: The Last Poem of April
The Last Poem of April April was only cruel in that it exacted from me 31 poems, whether I liked it or not, but mostly, truth be told, I liked it, and I moved freely and by choice through the month, writing a poem every day until today, the day on which I write the lastContinue reading “#30: The Last Poem of April”
#29: After Teaching the Ancient Chinese Masters, the American English Teacher Considers Buddhism Through an Exploration of the Four Noble Truths
After Teaching the Ancient Chinese Masters, the American English Teacher Considers Buddhism Through an Exploration of The Four Noble Truths Life is suffering. Not the physical pain of suffering, a burnt hand, a broken limb, an illness, but an uneasiness, a dissatisfaction, a desire that comes not from a dream or a goal but fromContinue reading “#29: After Teaching the Ancient Chinese Masters, the American English Teacher Considers Buddhism Through an Exploration of the Four Noble Truths”
#28: Did You See The Moon?
Did You See The Moon? More luminous than your computer screen, shining in through the window of your study, full, full of fury, brightening the night sky like nobody’s business. Landing on the moon was not nearly as special as it was to look at the Earth from that vantage point. Just as, perhaps, theContinue reading “#28: Did You See The Moon?”
#27: Eggs In Your Beer
Today’s assignment from the NaPoWriMo website was to use a search engine to look up some common proverb or phrase and to use the results to make a poem. This is one my mother often used anytime someone became petulant and demanding. Not much of this poem comes from my search engine results, only theContinue reading “#27: Eggs In Your Beer”
michael jarmer 