Tag Archives: A poem a day for a month

#319: How to Write a Poem Every Day

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends called National Poetry Writing Month, or NaPoWriMo for short. Here is my first of 30 attempts, my seventh year in a row. The number 319 in my title, FYI, represents the number of poems I have published on the mighty blog, 180 of which wereContinue reading “#319: How to Write a Poem Every Day”

Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year, Redux: Teacher Appreciation and Spring Break Randomness

First of all, here’s a thing a student of mine wrote in response to the question: what does e. e. cummings say in his poetry about being and unbeing? When e.e cummings talks about being and unbeing the message that he’s pretraying [sic] is that to be [is] not to be and not to beContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year, Redux: Teacher Appreciation and Spring Break Randomness”

#316: Chakras and Chi Balls (the Last Poem of April)

Some people associate a rainbow of colors with various parts of their bodies and they ascribe certain powers or characteristics of their psycho-emotional life to these various colors or energies; Some people think you can concentrate on a color, say, orange, and a body place, say, your privates, and that somehow your relationships will beContinue reading “#316: Chakras and Chi Balls (the Last Poem of April)”

#315: On the Penultimate Day of April, the English Teacher in his Penultimate Year Writes a Long Rambling Poem Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s Burst of Productivity in the Months Before She Died

I’m not going anywhere, but (having lost now both mom and dad) I notice thoughts about mortality enter the noggin with more frequency these days. I’m reading, or rather, listening to Life Reimagined, where Barbara Bradley Hagerty argues essentially that there is really no such thing as a mid-life crisis for most mid-lifers. Much of thatContinue reading “#315: On the Penultimate Day of April, the English Teacher in his Penultimate Year Writes a Long Rambling Poem Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s Burst of Productivity in the Months Before She Died”

#313: The World Is Too Much All Up in Here

(my advance apologies to anyone serious about this stuff, and to Wordsworth) My world card tells me that I’ve got time in my pinky, a king on my ring, twenty one flip-off capacity, death in my forefinger, and a sun up my thumb. But I’ve got the whole world, as the song says, in myContinue reading “#313: The World Is Too Much All Up in Here”

#311: Warning

Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate anything in this room. This bag is not a toy. This thing right here: do not eat. Watch your step. If symptoms persist, consult your physician. I am out of band-aids. Men below, please don’t throw. Slow children. This hand sanitizer is flammable. Think about that for a minute.Continue reading “#311: Warning”

#308: An Attempted Explanation

As soon as I decided not to go shopping for music the second day in a row, my car horn alarm went off and I couldn’t get it to stop. I sat there in the car, parked, engine running, horn blasting, poking and pushing every conceivable control surface, even the ones I knew wouldn’t work,Continue reading “#308: An Attempted Explanation”

#306: Letters to His Sister (Point of View Cluster in Frankenstein)

Q: Hey kids, what’s the point of view in this here novel? You know, who speaks and to whom are they speaking? A: Well, Walton, he’s the speaker, and he’s writing letters to his sister. But at some point, Victor is speaking to Walton who is writing letters to his sister, but then, Elizabeth isContinue reading “#306: Letters to His Sister (Point of View Cluster in Frankenstein)”

#305: The Offending Journal

I’ve seen students copy all kinds of stuff from one another, sometimes going as far as copying down word for word pages upon pages of a buddy’s journal responses, the act of copying all that text more work than actually doing the work, only with the added “benefit” of not learning anything. But I’ve never seenContinue reading “#305: The Offending Journal”