You try not to cry. Absolutely mind-blownby the ability, the skill,the prowess, the intensity of hisparts, his movement, his seamless integrationwith this group, a groupthat plays and movesas if it were one body. The tug comes from different directions. On the one hand, you miss him. He has been away from home for nearly sixContinue reading “#572: On Seeing Your Son Perform at the University of Dayton Arena with Pulse Percussion”
Category Archives: Poetry
#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here
After something like 25 yearsliving on different sides of a widecontinent, the two friends decideto start writing music together. He’d arrange a musical idea,play bass guitar to a click track, maybe add some keyboard, and share these tracks with hisfriend via the mighty google drive. His friend, then, would downloadthese tracks into his own homestudio,Continue reading “#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here”
#570: Drum Lessons
Ringo Starr, one of the greatest drummers in the world, has admittedto not being able to do a double-stroke roll. I’ve seen children in YouTubevideos who are better drummers thanI will ever be. I don’t like these drummers. My son is a better rudimental drummer than I will ever be. How come? He worked aContinue reading “#570: Drum Lessons”
#569: Some Birds
I sit in meditationin a room with banksof window on three walls.The windows that openare open. It’s morning, April, and it’s cool in here;a breeze moves throughand I am almost cold. I practice breathing. Some birds are out there,doing their bird thing. We call it singing. This morning there’s a kind of call and responsehappeningContinue reading “#569: Some Birds”
#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go
I have taken my first dose of sodium, potassium, and magnesium sulfate, all thesulfates, sulfate, sulfate, sulfate, and I willsoon be indisposed, but before thenI am listening to the new OK Gowith the recommended follow updose of 32 ounces of water andthe poem that would be impossibleto write from a toilet. This is goodmusic, andContinue reading “#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go”
#567: Dream Song Sonnet with An Extra Couplet
The drummer reaches the end of the songbut can’t remember having played the bridge. He thinks to himself, as he prepares for thenext tune, did we mess up the arrangement?Did we all make the same mistake or wasit just me? He doesn’t recall any strange looksfrom his bandmates, no side-eyes or scowls, the usual indicationContinue reading “#567: Dream Song Sonnet with An Extra Couplet”
#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta
I I haven’t even listened to it yet, but I have looked at it with some surprise– precisely because there’s nothing to see.I will describe it from the inside out.Black vinyl, black label, on which tiny numbers indicate sides, inside black sleeves.An insert, the only art, a gray and tanindeterminate image, a map, orjust randomContinue reading “#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta”
#565: A Sonnet for Japanese Breakfast
From jubilation to down in the dumps: The trajectory of Zauner’s JapaneseBreakfast from the last album to this one. For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Womenspin for the first time on my turntable, but I’m not despondent, not in the least, in the way that it can feel good to be sad,in the way that aContinue reading “#565: A Sonnet for Japanese Breakfast”
#564: Starlings
When I read the prompt today on the NaPoWriMo website, to write a poem about listening to or singing a song while driving, incorporating a lyric quote somewhere in the piece, and I read the example poem by Ellen Bass, I knew immediately what song I would write about. And shortly thereafter I also knewContinue reading “#564: Starlings”
#563: Good Enough
After years, nay, decades of experience, you think you’ve figured it out. You think you’re pretty good at the thing. You’ve got a job to do, and you listen, and you think you will sit down and immediately jam out exactly the right thing. You listen back and it sucks. I can do that better,Continue reading “#563: Good Enough”
michael jarmer 