poem a day – michael jarmer

The A to Z Listening Challenge So Far (By The Numbers)

It appears that I have arrived at the half way point in my challenge of listening to nearly every single album in my vinyl record collection. It falls, neatly enough, at the end of the letter L, just one letter shy of the 13th letter, and the half way mark in the alphabet, which is,Continue reading “The A to Z Listening Challenge So Far (By The Numbers)”

#790: L is for Lucius

Ten years ago, I bought this albumGood Grief by Lucius. Like a numberof other artists represented in my collection, I do not remember howI was turned on to their music. If I were to make an educated guess, it’d be that I was reading glowingreviews, or that this album was showing up on various favoriteContinue reading “#790: L is for Lucius”

#788: L is for Lotic

My son is eleven, maybe twelve years old. It’s 2016 or 17 and for ChristmasI buy him a starter turntable. From his earliest years, surrounded by music, he grows to love it, so I thinkhe might also, like his Dad, grow into a vinyl enthusiast. One day I take him to my favorite record storeContinue reading “#788: L is for Lotic”

#787: L is for The Lemon Twigs

When brothers Brian and Michael D’Addariofirst started making records, they were 19and 17 years old, respectively. Today, neitherof them are out of their twenties, and in theintervening decade, they’ve released six fulllength albums and one e.p. of music as The Lemon Twigs, one cover album of songs written by their dad, and Brian has releasedContinue reading “#787: L is for The Lemon Twigs”

#786: An American Sonnet after the Billie Eilish Concert Film

For a 1:40 showing on a Monday, I sat alone, the only person insidethe neighborhood multiplex, theater #8, to watch the Billie Eilish concert film.No 3D available here, I watched it binocularly, with my own glasses.Even without stereoscopy, I was still movedby the spectacle, the music, the magnitudeof it all, the tears streaming down faces.ThousandsContinue reading “#786: An American Sonnet after the Billie Eilish Concert Film”

#785: L is for The Last Dinner Party

In another alphabetical mishap, bypassing the newer records insidethe browser cubes, I momentarilyforgot about this top-notch all-female English chamber pop rockgroup called The Last Dinner Party, a band so good I almost don’t like them, not because I’m jealous, not because I believe for a secondthe accusation that they’re industryplants (whatever the hell that means),Continue reading “#785: L is for The Last Dinner Party”

#784: You Might Have ADHD, or Not

I just watched a music videoby that guy and his wifeabout all the ways youmight behave if you had ADHD. It was, like all their stuff, really good, but I didn’t make it through the whole thing. I looked downat my wrist to find out whattime it was and noticedthat I wasn’t wearing mywatch. IContinue reading “#784: You Might Have ADHD, or Not”

#783: L is for Laufey

Lo eh veh. Or Lo eu veh. Or LOI-vay. Not Laffey, please, as many of us likelymispronounced her name once we became aware of this young Icelandicsensation bringing what sounded likestandard vocal jazz to the world of pop. Right next door to k.d. lang in the stacks, a comparison seems appropriate. Whilethe quality of theirContinue reading “#783: L is for Laufey”

#782: L is for lang, k.d.

I found myself in the middle of an MFA creative writing programlistening obsessively to k.d. lang, in particular these three albums, Ingénue, All You Can Eat, and Drag. Even though the first of these threewas released a couple of years earlier, I discovered her in 1995. How I came across this music, I do notContinue reading “#782: L is for lang, k.d.”

#780: Found

In the yard, just lying there in the green grass, about five or six feet from the curb, a day after garbage pickup, I found three pages of text ripped from the middle of a trashy novel, ripped from the middle of the pages, so no heading was discernible, no way of deciphering what theContinue reading “#780: Found”