Once something goes upside down it can never again be seen as the thing it once was. Or.Just model the opening statement after Auden:About some abstract noun they were never wrong,These young masters. How well they understood . . .Or.Poets sometimes, after 26 straight days of writing a poem every day,are visited by a bigContinue reading “#574: Saucers and Blimps and False Starts”
Tag Archives: poetry
#573: A Double Loose Love Sonnet for Daily Records
I When I was a teen, 45 years ago now, I’d walk weekly to a neighborhoodrecord store. There were, in fact, three to choose from on the samesuburban strip, otherwise, a culturalwasteland. By the time I was an adult,all three of them were shuttered. My favorite, Everybody’s Records, turned into a pornshop. ALL ADULT VIDEOContinue reading “#573: A Double Loose Love Sonnet for Daily Records”
#572: On Seeing Your Son Perform at the University of Dayton Arena with Pulse Percussion
You try not to cry. Absolutely mind-blownby the ability, the skill,the prowess, the intensity of hisparts, his movement, his seamless integrationwith this group, a groupthat plays and movesas if it were one body. The tug comes from different directions. On the one hand, you miss him. He has been away from home for nearly sixContinue reading “#572: On Seeing Your Son Perform at the University of Dayton Arena with Pulse Percussion”
#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”
#570: Drum Lessons
Ringo Starr, one of the greatest drummers in the world, has admittedto not being able to do a double-stroke roll. I’ve seen children in YouTubevideos who are better drummers thanI will ever be. I don’t like these drummers. My son is a better rudimental drummer than I will ever be. How come? He worked aContinue reading “#570: Drum Lessons”
#569: Some Birds
I sit in meditationin a room with banksof window on three walls.The windows that openare open. It’s morning, April, and it’s cool in here;a breeze moves throughand I am almost cold. I practice breathing. Some birds are out there,doing their bird thing. We call it singing. This morning there’s a kind of call and responsehappeningContinue reading “#569: Some Birds”
#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go
I have taken my first dose of sodium, potassium, and magnesium sulfate, all thesulfates, sulfate, sulfate, sulfate, and I willsoon be indisposed, but before thenI am listening to the new OK Gowith the recommended follow updose of 32 ounces of water andthe poem that would be impossibleto write from a toilet. This is goodmusic, andContinue reading “#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go”
#567: Dream Song Sonnet with An Extra Couplet
The drummer reaches the end of the songbut can’t remember having played the bridge. He thinks to himself, as he prepares for thenext tune, did we mess up the arrangement?Did we all make the same mistake or wasit just me? He doesn’t recall any strange looksfrom his bandmates, no side-eyes or scowls, the usual indicationContinue reading “#567: Dream Song Sonnet with An Extra Couplet”
#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta
I I haven’t even listened to it yet, but I have looked at it with some surprise– precisely because there’s nothing to see.I will describe it from the inside out.Black vinyl, black label, on which tiny numbers indicate sides, inside black sleeves.An insert, the only art, a gray and tanindeterminate image, a map, orjust randomContinue reading “#566: Two Sonnets for Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos del Vacios by The Mars Volta”
#565: A Sonnet for Japanese Breakfast
From jubilation to down in the dumps: The trajectory of Zauner’s JapaneseBreakfast from the last album to this one. For Melancholy Brunettes and Sad Womenspin for the first time on my turntable, but I’m not despondent, not in the least, in the way that it can feel good to be sad,in the way that aContinue reading “#565: A Sonnet for Japanese Breakfast”
michael jarmer 