I was compelled to use the word“voice” three times in the title of thispoem, and looking at the word (everyone has had this experience)it feels unfamiliar, unreal, made up. That sound I make when I talkis called a voice, and the personalityof my writing or my art is also calledsometimes a voice, but, too, theContinue reading “#758: The Voice That Is Not My Voice Is My Voice”
Tag Archives: poems
#757: Sobriquet for Jeff
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”
#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”
#743: J is for Jackson, Kara
I can’t remember the last timeI was as hypnotized by a voice. Or the last time I fell in love withan album that was, ostensibly, folk. When Kara Jackson tours, I think, she’s just a singer with an acoustic. And while the songs are powerful delivered in this stripped down way,this record is sonically complex.Continue reading “#743: J is for Jackson, Kara”
#737: I is for It’s A Beautiful Day
The first time I heard this record, it was January in 2024 as I was goingthrough a stack of records bequeathed to me by my brother-in-law, Kevin. This is what I wrote: Embarrassed a little bit to admit it, but even though I have seen this album cover a thousand times, and wondered in stupefactionContinue reading “#737: I is for It’s A Beautiful Day”
#731: A Tanka on April 1st, 2026
Happy April 1, the first day of National Poetry Month, and for those who participate, National Poetry WRITING Month, or NaPoWriMo for short. I find myself in a little bit of a pickle. If you’ve been reading my almost daily work here on the blog, you will know that I am writing poem-like-things about eachContinue reading “#731: A Tanka on April 1st, 2026”
#693: F is for Ferry, Bryan
Here’s a super groovy late 80’s album for you. I think I heard Bryan Ferry on the Roxy Music Avalon album and I didn’t even make the connectionbetween this guy and “Love Is The Drug.” And while I loved that Roxy Music album,I have never taken the plunge into Roxy Music’s back catalog, which goesContinue reading “#693: F is for Ferry, Bryan”
#592: A is for Arooj Aftab
I go to a tequila bartonight, not for tequila, but for food, in part because it’s right behind the liquor store, where I reallywant to go, but also becauseI need something to eat. No kitchen. Everything on the food menu is preparedhere inside of an air fryer.I can easily go elsewhere,elsewhere, but for convenienceand economicsContinue reading “#592: A is for Arooj Aftab”
#587: A musician of a certain age. . .
. . . sits on his drum throne and bends overto tighten the floor tom legs and the agonyis immediate. He’s not sure if he hears an actual crack or if the pain synapses inhis brain are exploding his auditory nerves. What is most likely is that the pain hascaused him to yell. He’s settingContinue reading “#587: A musician of a certain age. . .”
#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here
After something like 25 yearsliving on different sides of a widecontinent, the two friends decideto start writing music together. He’d arrange a musical idea,play bass guitar to a click track, maybe add some keyboard, and share these tracks with hisfriend via the mighty google drive. His friend, then, would downloadthese tracks into his own homestudio,Continue reading “#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here”
michael jarmer 