#108: The Love Song of Bernard Von Scuttlesby

The prompt today from NaPoWriMo is an assignment that I have already done when I mistakenly ripped off the structure and form of a John Berryman poem as my “golden shovel.” I redeemed myself that day by creating a bonus poem based on the William Carlos Williams gem “The Red Wheelbarrow.”  I wish I would haveContinue reading “#108: The Love Song of Bernard Von Scuttlesby”

#107: Ode To Vinyl

  The love poem for my dear wife is forthcoming, especially in light of all she’s been through lately.  Need some time to get it right, though, so, today’s assignment from NaPoWriMo is to write a love poem for an inanimate object. Here’s to another love: Ode To Vinyl I was 23 and bought theContinue reading “#107: Ode To Vinyl”

#106: O Lorde

O Lorde, everyone and their dog is giving you kudos not only because your music is terrific but lately because of a tweet. You posted two pictures of yourself both taken from the same day and the same performance and one of them was photoshopped and the other was not. People thought this was braveContinue reading “#106: O Lorde”

#103: Third Time’s The Charm (A Self-Spell for Teacher)

Today, on this third day of National Poetry Month, we are encouraged, if we need encouragement (and tonight at 7:45 after a 12 hour work day I DO need the encouragement), to write a CHARM poem. All right. And just in case you thought me incapable of rhyme: A Self-Spell For Teacher After twenty-five yearsContinue reading “#103: Third Time’s The Charm (A Self-Spell for Teacher)”

#101: The Snake or the Dove

Once again, happy National Poetry Month, thanks for visiting, and welcome to the first installment of a poem-a-day for the entire month for NaPoWriMo! Let the games begin!  Let the poems spew forth from the generative void that is Michael Jarmer’s brain.  And let us begin by following the prompt on the NaPoWriMo website for theContinue reading “#101: The Snake or the Dove”

#100: Serious About Poetry

I have just now reached my personal goal of writing 100 poems in a year!  I know poets who have written a poem every day for a year, so this may not be the most amaze-balls news of the world, but it’s amazing for me.  I think it’s a personal best, a personal record.  I’veContinue reading “#100: Serious About Poetry”

#99: It Sucks When There’s No Resolution

Sometimes I argue with my poems. Sometimes, I write things I don’t believe, just to try them on. I just published a poem that claimed that good fiction sometimes has no resolution–and in that way–good fiction mirrors this same aspect of living–that often, more often than we’d like, issues, problems, and conflicts go unresolved. Certainly,Continue reading “#99: It Sucks When There’s No Resolution”

#98: Sometimes the Resolution is No Resolution

In fiction writing, or in reading fiction, it’s important to understand that sometimes the resolution is that there’s no resolution: there’s no way it can be solved or fixed or for all parties to see eye to eye about a situation they’ve disputed. And the reason it’s that way in fiction writing and in reading fiction,Continue reading “#98: Sometimes the Resolution is No Resolution”

#96: An Extra 5 Years To Live

So these folks made a video to call attention to the fact that today’s generation of children is for the first time in history expected to die five years earlier than their parents. The film- makers asked a bunch of kids what they would do with another five years to live. This is a poemContinue reading “#96: An Extra 5 Years To Live”

#95: On the End of Spring Break

There’s laundry to fold and put away and dust bunnies to suck up and it’s raining and blowing so hard we’re sort of trapped in here. Water puddles up in the flower beds and these damn sugar ants keep crawling over my keyboard while I type up another poem. It’s Saturday, half way through, andContinue reading “#95: On the End of Spring Break”