Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo

#750: I Know a Poet

I know a poet who (years ago) createda software program that could write poems. As an experiment, he brought those poemsto a workshop and pretended they were his. People were pissed at him. They invested their time and their critical acumen to helpthis writer with his poetry and they felt hoodwinked and were not atContinue reading “#750: I Know a Poet”

#749: Landscapes

You and your landscapes! Isn’t that a quote from Beckett? I don’t know, but that’s how I feelthis morning after looking at the poetry prompt from NaPoWriMo,after that dream I had last nightabout doing a show to which noone came. When I was a teacher, I had dreams about failures in the classroom. I sometimesContinue reading “#749: Landscapes”

#748: We Called Him Uncle Meany

Jerry was wild and funny, had a tremendously deviouslaugh, joyful, playful, but for some reason we all called himUncle Meany. He was Dad’s uncle, really, but only a year or twoolder, so there was nothing second or great uncle about him,and there seemed to be nothing mean about him either.In the summer he’d take usoutContinue reading “#748: We Called Him Uncle Meany”

#747: Marcus Aurelius, Redacted

Marcus Aurelius, Redacted Letting go, cling. Remember this fleetinginstant gone, or revealed. This mortal little thinglived in a corner; and little, too, is the longest dependentsuccession of fast-perishingselves, much less, long dead.  The source: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book III, section 10 Letting go all else, cling to the following few truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant:Continue reading “#747: Marcus Aurelius, Redacted”

#745: The Dog Speaks of Cognition

You wonder what I’m thinking. When necessary, I try to be clearand you understand my cues. I need to eat or go outside. I want a walk. I need a snack, damn it. Those other dogspiss me off. I would really like to catch that squirrel. It’s during the down times, the quiet moments, whenContinue reading “#745: The Dog Speaks of Cognition”

#744: I Am No

I am no psychologist. I often find myself in my fictionwriting scenes in which characterssay, either out loud or as a thought, that they are no something or another. I am no psychologist. I can’t be using that phrase in every single book that I write. I am no historian. That would be like aContinue reading “#744: I Am No”

#742: Political Jump Rope, April 7

In a dream the children were all jumping rope and skipping hopscotch while singing the following song,a song they had constructed, I’d guessed, from overheard snatches of their parents nightly conversations: “Donald Trump, Donald Trump, go away. In the dump, in the dump, you should stay. The 25th amendment, we should invokeI’d buy some shitContinue reading “#742: Political Jump Rope, April 7”

#741: J is for Jacklin, Julia

Somehow Joe Jackson snuck in frontof Julia Jacklin in the stacks. One of my favoriterecords of 2022, Julia Jacklin’s Pre-Pleasure is a mellow, moody mix of singer-songwriter goodness, smart, evocative, sometimes funnylyrics and Julia’s soft but rich singing voice.“Lydia Wears A Cross,” the album opener, is a vivid study of children in church and allContinue reading “#741: J is for Jacklin, Julia”

#740: The Post Office Guy Asks Me To Wait

I wait in line to shipnine paperback books to nine different addresses in the United States, media rate. The Post Office guy begins stamping and affixing bar code stickers and postage paid stickers on to my packages and he gets about threepackages in and he says to me, a line is starting to form andContinue reading “#740: The Post Office Guy Asks Me To Wait”