I learned a new word today: sobriquet. It’s a fancy word for nickname, a kind of nicknamefor nickname. Because the scientificnames are difficult and hard to remember, people have given sobriquets to flowers and plants: baby’s breath, bleeding heart, poppy (known most commonlyas Papaver Somniferum), even the word lily is shortfor something. We give nicknamestoContinue reading “#757: Sobriquet for Jeff”
Tag Archives: National Poetry Writing Month
#756: J is for The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, or the Worst of American Airlines
Coming home from Dayton with a short layover in Chicago, our flight, scheduled for take-off from O’Hare at nine, is delayed because of “technical issues.” That’s just the thingyou want to hear waiting to boarda plane. Your thinking goes to uglyplaces. And then, on the other hand, statistically speaking, you are safer ina plane thanContinue reading “#756: J is for The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, or the Worst of American Airlines”
#755: From Drums to Flowers and Turtles
After three days in the Dayton arena listening to drum line after drum line in the Winter Guard International Indoor Percussion World Championship, we have time to kill before our flight home. We decide to visit a place completely void of drum lines and find ourselves at the Cox Arboretum MetroPark. That place was freshContinue reading “#755: From Drums to Flowers and Turtles”
#753: No, THIS Is Just To Say
This Is Just To SayBY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold You sonofabitch, now what am I supposed to eat for breakfast? There’s nothing else in the fridge. I might haveContinue reading “#753: No, THIS Is Just To Say”
#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”
michael jarmer 