I’m not reading again, but instead, trying again to read for the first time, the problem being, as I’ve said before, not one of starting but of finishing, which, I fear is, but hope is not, a general pattern in my life. Call me Ishmael. What a great first line. I read it twenty timesContinue reading “#50: On Trying Again To Read Moby Dick (Again)”
Category Archives: Writing and Reading
In Celebration of My 100th Blog Post
It’s a milestone, don’t you think? It seems so to me. This blog post right here, the one I hope you are currently reading, is the 100th blog entry by Michael Jarmer. It took me two plus years to get here. So help me do the math. What is it? 50 posts a year? That’sContinue reading “In Celebration of My 100th Blog Post”
#43: The Summertime Blues Is A Real Thing
The Summer Time Blues Is A Real Thing I’m here to tell you that the Summertime Blues is a real thing. And I’m not talking about the silly song about the kid who couldn’t work late or can’t use the damn car and is too young to vote, no, I’m talking about the summertime blues thatContinue reading “#43: The Summertime Blues Is A Real Thing”
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”
#3: Self Censorship and the Creative Writer (You Can’t Say That)
I hate it. I wish it were not true, but whenever I have penned something delicious or exciting or in some way daring or brave, a series of questions begin nagging my monkey mind: What will my students think of that? How will my mother react? Will my brother disown me? Will my wife want me reading thisContinue reading “#3: Self Censorship and the Creative Writer (You Can’t Say That)”
Reading With My Boy On Easter Eve
It was a first, a first on this Easter Eve afternoon. Sure, we’ve read to our son at bedtime almost every night of the week since birth, but this was the first time ever, on this warmest and sunniest day of the year thus far, that my son and I were to sit down together,Continue reading “Reading With My Boy On Easter Eve”
Combustion Deconstruction: Some Musings on the Fate of a First Novel
I started writing my first novel when I was, perhaps, 28 years old, I finished it coming out of an MFA program when I was 32, revised it when I was 35, began a long, demoralizing, tedious, and ultimately unsuccessful agent search, and then, when I was 40, I put the novel in the proverbialContinue reading “Combustion Deconstruction: Some Musings on the Fate of a First Novel”
Of Being Tired of Writing About Teaching
I think, at least for now, I’ve exhausted my brain and my “pen” regarding teaching, issues of public schooling, educational crisis, education reform. I know I will come back to it. It’s inevitable. But for the time being I feel like anything I have to say now will be a repeat of something I haveContinue reading “Of Being Tired of Writing About Teaching”
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