We saw it coming. In fact, it’s not at all surprising. Nevertheless, I was surprised (!) to hear our governor’s announcement today that schools would remain closed until the end of the year. Distance Learning would be the modality that would take us through to the end. What I found most distressing in this news–andContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #16”
Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo
#351: Earth Has Acquired a Brand New Moon That’s About the Size of a Car
Here’s some good news for a change. I love how the earth can acquire moons and I hope this won’t be the last. I’d like to see a moon the size of a bus, a really big bus, one of those accordion busses that bends in the middle, and I’d like to be the firstContinue reading “#351: Earth Has Acquired a Brand New Moon That’s About the Size of a Car”
#350: The Garden of Earthly Deep Purple
Today’s NaPoWriMo suggestion was to write a persona poem in the point of view of a character from Bosch’s famous triptych “Garden of Earthly Delights.” A great prompt idea, I think, one that I would have liked to write from. But even after I watched and listened to the interactive tour of this crazy thingContinue reading “#350: The Garden of Earthly Deep Purple”
#349: Twenty Little Poetry Projects
I thought I would just share the instructions from the optional prompt today on the NaPoWriMo website, so folks could have some insight into the composition of today’s poem. I tried to write a line or lines inspired by each item of instruction in chronological order, rather than jumping around, in the hopes that theContinue reading “#349: Twenty Little Poetry Projects”
#348: Don’t Do Something
I get it. People shut in want to get things done, they get all ambitious and want to complete the house project, write the great American novel, exercise themselves into hardbodies, record a hit record, paint their master- piece, read 20 great books, write poems every day. The experts tell us to knock that shitContinue reading “#348: Don’t Do Something”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #15
Famous people are sick and dying. Yesterday we learned of the passing of Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne. I love that band. He was 52 years old. That makes me sad and anxious. So, among the new coronavirus developments is this understanding that you don’t have to be old to be especially vulnerable. TheContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #15”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #14
Today, was the third day “back to work” as a Distance Learning Public School English Teacher and the second day of National Poetry Month, April, 2020. My contact with students thus far, remotely, has been minimal. Our district has given us three days to prepare the rollout of some supplemental learning resources for our students,Continue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #14”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #13
Today is April 1 of the year of our pandemic, 2020, but it is also the first day of National Poetry Month, during which, over the past six years, I have celebrated by writing a poem every day for an entire month. This will be year seven in a poetry writing streak. To the bestContinue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #13”
#348: On the Last Day of National Poetry Month, the American English Teacher Writes Several Minimalist Poems About Things He Finds in the Staff Lounge
Coffee Made a single cup; fuel needed after waking at 4 in the morning. Vinegar There’s a bottle of balsamic on the table, waiting to be drizzled over someone’s leftovers for lunch. 100 Hits Here’s a copy of Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits, a gift to the staff lounge from an intern of mine fromContinue reading “#348: On the Last Day of National Poetry Month, the American English Teacher Writes Several Minimalist Poems About Things He Finds in the Staff Lounge”
#347: A Prose Poem Meditation on the Penultimate Day of National Poetry Month by the American English Teacher in His Potentially Penultimate Professional Year, Ending in a Rhyming Couplet
The natives are restless, the 9th graders are rowdy, won’t stop talking, interrupt almost every teacher phrase with chatter, and because my intern has the class, I am completely unruffled. It’s the penultimate day of National Poetry Month and this is my penultimate poem in prose in the April of my potentially penultimate school yearContinue reading “#347: A Prose Poem Meditation on the Penultimate Day of National Poetry Month by the American English Teacher in His Potentially Penultimate Professional Year, Ending in a Rhyming Couplet”
michael jarmer 