All my best friends are musicians, it seems, which is no surprise, Cool cats who sing, strum, pluck, pound, mix, and write, not a surprise. I married one some 39 years ago and we’re still together, drumming. I did the easy part, but she gave birth to one, a great drummer, surprise. Guitar players, whoContinue reading “#554: A Friendship Ghazal”
Tag Archives: writing
#553: A History of Drumming
Today’s poem is very loosely a poem. It’s a little essay broken into lines so as to imitate a poem, a pretty standard technique of mine. I tend to be pretty liberal about what constitutes a poem and what does not. Like most discussions around genre and form, it’s really only interesting if one findsContinue reading “#553: A History of Drumming”
#550: That Guy
Wednesday night at the John Grant concert, my friend and I sat mesmerized by his witty stage banter, his beautiful voice, one man, a grand piano, and a synth. A low volume rock show, in between songs after the enthusiastic applausewe could hear the theater seats creak,and while he played, even in the quietestmoments, IContinue reading “#550: That Guy”
#547: The Art of the Lie
The Art of the Lie I am in full agreementthat John Grant is no namefor a rock star, and yet, he is, nevertheless, a rock star to me,and his most recent album, The Art of the Lie,has been in consistent, heavyrotation. I listened to it todayin the car as I drove to Pure LifeClinic forContinue reading “#547: The Art of the Lie”
#546: Étude for Not Writing a Poem
I don’t know what to say. I have never before, in the eleven previous years of participation in National Poetry Writing Month, experienced such intense internal resistance to writing a poem–ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH! I can’t explain it. Usually I am fired up and I jump out of the starting gate withContinue reading “#546: Étude for Not Writing a Poem”
Two Days Until National Poetry Writing Month: Ekphrastic Fest?
On this 30th day of March, we find ourselves only two days away from National Poetry Writing Month, during which we creative types are encouraged to compose a poem a day every day for the entire month of April. I can safely (but humbly) brag about the fact that I have completed this task ofContinue reading “Two Days Until National Poetry Writing Month: Ekphrastic Fest?”
On Finding a Routine
Embarrassment of riches: retired guy has enough time on his hands to do any thing he wants, has a list of such things at the ready, and yet, some of the things he wants to do he doesn’t do–or, more accurately, doesn’t do enough of to satisfy his own self-critical assessment of his productivity. HeContinue reading “On Finding a Routine”
On the Twenty-ninth Day of 2025…
…I discover that Jim in Percival Everett’s retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is fully literate. He’s read Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke when he’s alone in Judge Thatcher’s library, and on Jacksons Island, after he gets bit by a rattlesnake, he has conversations with these literary and philosophical giants in fever-induced hallucinations, and isContinue reading “On the Twenty-ninth Day of 2025…”
On the Twenty-sixth Day of 2025…
…Outside of walking the dogs, I didn’t leave the house. I didn’t drive anywhere. I did very little. Meditated. Completed a few domestic chores. Communicated with my bandmates about rehearsals and rock and roll outfits. I set up a YouTube channel and vented my frustration into the ether. I took a nap. I made tacos.Continue reading “On the Twenty-sixth Day of 2025…”
On the Eighteenth Day of 2025…
…I have broken the record from January 2024 by writing eighteen days in a row toward the goal of blogging every day during the first month of the new year, attempting each day to string together a few hundred to a thousand words that form coherent sentences and ideas. I’ve tried to vary the shoeContinue reading “On the Eighteenth Day of 2025…”
michael jarmer 