#780: Found

In the yard, just lying there in the green grass, about five or six feet from the curb, a day after garbage pickup, I found three pages of text ripped from the middle of a trashy novel, ripped from the middle of the pages, so no heading was discernible, no way of deciphering what theContinue reading “#780: Found”

#770: Interlude: An American Sonnet Before the Letter K

I couldn’t bring myself today to startat the top of the letter K listening to Kansas records. I’ve listened to the entire collection alphabetically up through the letter J and I need a break. Since October I have written 78,000words about music in these poem-like-things. But I couldn’t bear to break my streak, oddly, ofContinue reading “#770: Interlude: An American Sonnet Before the Letter K”

#768: J is for Jockstrap

Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye are the electronic experimental Englishpop duo of Jockstrap, who, with I Love You, Jennifer B, have released the only album I am aware of for which the listener gets to design their own album cover. The absolutely blank bright greenrecord jacket contains the record, of course, in translucent green, andContinue reading “#768: J is for Jockstrap”

#767: The Muses

The muses are doom-scrolling on their cell phoneswhile we mortals look for inspiration in pocket fuzz, lint traps, duty-free liquor, or by doom-scrolling onour cell phones. This can’t end well. I wrote: “She grimaced as her hand tightened into a fish.”This becomes the premise for a new novel. The muses have forgotten why they pickedContinue reading “#767: The Muses”

#766: Now and Then

I am sitting in the backyard under the oak trees on a beautiful spring day with the dogs. We just went for a walk and now we are relaxing, mowers in the distance, the hammering of a new roof install a few houses down, traffic from adistant highway, and underneath all of that thrum, theContinue reading “#766: Now and Then”

#764: Things to Remember

A swarm of 50,000 bees is nesting inside of her bedroom wall.How many plush toys or teddy bearsdid it take to make you feel safe? It is important to remember thatall living things have but one purpose.

#762: Ars Poetica

To be bad at it. Good at the sentence, bad at the poem. To write proseand then just break that shit upinto lines. To write the poem-like-thing, the almost poem, the near beer poetry. To reach for the formbecause of its economy,its compression, its spongy versatility. To reach for the formbecause you have a thingContinue reading “#762: Ars Poetica”

#761: J is for Jethro Tull

Sitting on a park bench. Snot dripping down his nose. Both of my Jethro Tull albumsare used acquisitions, Aqualungstill has a price tag on it of $1.99. Aqualung, my friend, don’t you start away uneasy. You poor old sod, you see, it’s only me. And I want to know who has a friend namedafter aContinue reading “#761: J is for Jethro Tull”

#760: Early Morning Ride to the Airport in Darkness

At 4:30 in the morningthere’s no one on the roadsuntil one gets close to the airportand suddenly there are carseverywhere. The departure laneis jam packed and I can’t evenget close to the curb to drop off my son, so he has to make a go of it three lanes deepto join the throngs of airContinue reading “#760: Early Morning Ride to the Airport in Darkness”

#759: J is for Jellyfish

I cannot think of a better 90’s bandthat did not sound like the 90’s. Maybe The Posies or They Might BeGiants both come close, but thesecats, this Jellyfish band, I saw liveonce in their first iteration at a smallclub downtown shortly after that firstalbum, Bellybutton, and it was nearlya religious experience. Andy Sturmer, lead singingContinue reading “#759: J is for Jellyfish”