Dogs sleeping together. These birds in the back, from every bird a different song. The “who” of that dove. We’ve never had doves and now we have a dove. Squirrels being squirrels. Animals reclaiming Yosemite, lions asleep in the streets in South Africa. Air that’s good to breathe. The clerk at the liquor store who callsContinue reading “#362: Small Pleasures: A List”
Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo
#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable
Some very old things are new again, especially this gem, the turntable. Certainly, you’re not going to see a cassette tape renaissance, or, god-forbid, an 8-track tape revival, or a home stereo reel-to-real reprise, or a digital audio tape come-back, but you are going to see turntables, turn, turn, turntables. Some old technology is deadContinue reading “#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable”
#360: No Image Available (An Insult Poem)
I cannot compliment. I rather insult: You are as orange as the flames of hell, as dimwitted as a bug, as immoral as Satan, as ugly as a turd in the pool, as reckless as a drunkard at a church social, as hateful as Satan again, the mythical Satan, because I don’t believe in Satan,Continue reading “#360: No Image Available (An Insult Poem)”
#359: Yeah
I love it when the word “yeah” shows up in a song lyric, not in the conventional way, as in “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” but in an informal, conversational way, when the word feels almost like filler, but you know that it’s not. Wayne Coyne uses the word “well” as the very firstContinue reading “#359: Yeah”
#358: The Class of 2020 May Not Want to See Your Senior Picture
People keep posting their senior pictures in solidarity with the class of 2020, as if this will make young people whose proms and graduation ceremonies were cancelled, who may or may not have had their own senior photos taken, feel better about their losses. I don’t know. If I was 18, I might be pissed;Continue reading “#358: The Class of 2020 May Not Want to See Your Senior Picture”
#357: First Day of School, April 13, 2020
I had no students. As are all seniors in Oregon, my seniors are done, but I read a few lovely, comforting notes of gratitude from a few of them, and some requests for letters of recommendation. My sophomores, cared for now by an extremely competent, caring intern, earning her Masters in Teaching, remotely, at aContinue reading “#357: First Day of School, April 13, 2020”
#356: Another Triolet for Moby Dick
Almost seven years ago today, I wrote a triolet about not being able to finish Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Here I am, in the same boat, so to speak, in 2020. A double poetic feature today: first, the triolet from 2013 (with some minor revisions), then today’s triolet. What’s a triolet, you ask? On Trying toContinue reading “#356: Another Triolet for Moby Dick”
#355: Ophelia Was Really On To Something
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb-grace o’Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you someContinue reading “#355: Ophelia Was Really On To Something”
#354: A Drinking Hay(na)ku
NaPoWriMo introduces us today to a thing called the hay(na)ku). “Created by the poet Eileen Tabios and named by Vince Gotera, the hay(na)ku is a variant on the haiku. A hay(na)ku consists of a three-line stanza, where the first line has one word, the second line has two words, and the third line has three words. YouContinue reading “#354: A Drinking Hay(na)ku”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #17
Most importantly, I will not be able to BE with my seniors in IB English, not even remotely. I won’t see their faces, hear their voices, read their writing, laugh at their good humor, be in awe of their intelligence and kindness. But additionally, I will not be able to formally finish the Hamlet unitContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #17”
michael jarmer 