Do you remember, Janine, when we were not yet out of grade school, how we used to play at movie-making? We had no cameras or camcorders or iphones, only our minds to record the scenes conjured from unbound imagination, uninhibited and improvised, film stars in a film no one was watching nor would ever. SometimesContinue reading “#220: A Poem for Janine on the 29th Day of the Month of April”
Tag Archives: poem a day
#215: The Actor “Decides” the Last Scene is Four Lines Too Long and Does Some Spontaneous Editing On Stage
Moving through the last show of the run, it was hard to contain my happiness. Through the first four acts I felt downright giddy. It was difficult to suppress the smiles and there was a kind of laughter inside, too flattering sweet to be substantial. I was happy the run was near an end butContinue reading “#215: The Actor “Decides” the Last Scene is Four Lines Too Long and Does Some Spontaneous Editing On Stage”
#196: The Actor’s Nightmare
He stirs in the middle of the night, suddenly certain there are speeches in the play that he’s missed, didn’t even know were his, and on which he has not yet begun to work–days before dress rehearsal. In his sleep these lines appear with vivid specificity; he can hear the words and see the typeface and they seem every bit as realContinue reading “#196: The Actor’s Nightmare”
#189: Writing A Lune With My Students
Well, hello, and welcome to the annual poetry writing extravaganza in celebration of National Poetry Month during which suckers like myself attempt to write and publish a poem every day during the merry merry month of April. My first outing follows the instructions (optional as always) found on the National Poetry Writing Month website, where eachContinue reading “#189: Writing A Lune With My Students”
#148: I’ve Got To Write A Poem
I’ve Got to Write a Poem The boy says, daddy, come play with me, and I say, no son, I’ve got to write a poem. A pitfall of national poetry writing month: potentially bad, or at least neglectful parenting. Oh, damn, that’s right, he says, it’s April. You never play with me in April. AndContinue reading “#148: I’ve Got To Write A Poem”
#145: Flying by the Seat of My Pants
Flying by the Seat of My Pants It’s Easter, and I’m flying by the seat of my pants, winging it, making it up as I go along, which is, really, what I’ve been doing all along, each day, each moment: flying by the seat of my pants. Bonus Commentary: I improvised this silly little poemContinue reading “#145: Flying by the Seat of My Pants”
#130: Farewell, For Now
I asked my students what I should write my last poem of the month about and one kid suggested I go all meta. Write a poem about writing a poem about writing poems, he said. It was a pretty good idea. But instead, I took the prompt from the last prompt of the month from the NaPoWriMo website, not quite soContinue reading “#130: Farewell, For Now”
#129: Recipe for Disaster
Ocean of sky today, blue, clear, and a monkey siphoned all the gas from our car, gasoline fumes wafting, the drip, drip, drip evidence on concrete, crows soaring above the trees, I taste the toothpaste still from half an hour before, and rub an itch on my scalp, an itch that smells like gasoline. Rex Putnam, hereContinue reading “#129: Recipe for Disaster”
#128: John Oliver Slams My State
Today’s optional prompt from the Napowrimo curator is to write a poem entirely from the text of a newspaper article, manipulated any way one sees fit. Here’s this thing, courtesy of the Oregonian’s coverage of the debut episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” show. I guess any publicity is good publicity: John Oliver Slams My StateContinue reading “#128: John Oliver Slams My State”
#123: On Shakespeare’s Birthday
Harold Bloom said that Shakespeare invented the human. Bloom’s a blowhard pretty much but I think in this case he might be right. What writer in English before Shakespeare anticipated Freud and Jung, fleshed out all the archetypes, captured the various loves and hates and the myriad mental states and the thousand natural shocks that flesh isContinue reading “#123: On Shakespeare’s Birthday”
michael jarmer 