Tag Archives: National Poetry Month

#314: To Whom It May Concern

To Whom It May Concern Wherever You Are City, State, Zip Code Hello to Whom, I think this may concern you. I’ve been thinking about you, lately more than usual, I guess, ever since the weather turned. There’s been a disturbance. It’s been too long. That thing people say on postcards: I wish you wereContinue reading “#314: To Whom It May Concern”

#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”

#312: Senses Working Overtime

Unseasonably warm on this 26th of April, 86° in the shade, giving new meaning to “the cruelest month” moniker, and I’m biking home from work, still in work clothes, feeling myself try to crawl out of them, the sun beating down on my back as I pedal home. It’s a short ride, but long enough.Continue reading “#312: Senses Working Overtime”

#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”

#310: An Elegy for the Essay in English

I read his essay out loud the way it appeared on the page. In about five hundred words the student used two paragraphs, and, beyond a single period at the end of the first paragraph, used no commas, no semi-colons or colons, no dashes, no quotation marks, and no more periods, not even at theContinue reading “#310: An Elegy for the Essay in English”

#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better

All day I had Morrissey’s voice in my head after 5 albums worth of The Queen is Dead, the original album and eight sides of bonus and the lyrics to the song “I Know It’s Over” percolating and reverberating everywhere and again; it was almost too much to bear. I walked up and down hallwaysContinue reading “#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better”

#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”