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Michael Jackman
Singer-Songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist, & Poet

Category: writing

…in which some of my published writing is presented

White Mountains, New Hampshire

Poetry Podcast: “Stopping by Woods”

A short poetry podcast by yours truly that I think you’ll really enjoy. I take a nice, easy dive down into one of Robert Frost’s poems to show some of the cool inner workings. This was fun for me to do. I got to write the script, do the recording...

why read Jewish poetry?

That’s the title of my “OpEd” piece, which you can read in Louisville’s Community newspaper. The article grew out of a Zoom talk I gave to Louisville’s Temple Shalom. I want to thank Lee Chottiner, editor, for publishing the piece. I also want to thank Rabbi Jacowitz Chottiner of Temple...

here’s a teaching playlist on Youtube for you

I just put up a new Youtube playlist: “Teaching Podcasts by Michael Jackman, Poet and Teacher.” There, you can watch videos I’ve made about poetry, teaching poetry, and teaching in general. If there’s something you’d like me to talk about, contact me.

new poems: North Meridian R.

I have three poems featured in The North Meridian Review: A Journal of Culture and Scholarship, Volume 1, Winter 2020 Special Issue. These are three “letter poems” from my chapbook manuscript-in-progress: Letters from Spickert Knob. You can read the issue here – thenorthmeridianreview.org/past-issues

trying to teach students not to use clichés

With experience as a writer comes certainty about clichés (and their exceptions). Don’t use ’em exclamation point period. These worn-out formulas add nothing to the writing. Setting aside characters like Hamlet’s Polonius who spout clichés as a way of demonstrating that very fact. Yet I have students in upper level...

listen to an amazing poem by Gwendolyn Brooks

Here’s Major Jackson reading an amazing poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, “Negro Hero.” The reading is part of a series celebrating the 110th Anniversary of the Poetry Society of America.. Check out the series here: poetrysociety.org/features/reading-through-the-decades.

A little advice on poem titles

I think poets should avoid certain kinds of titles. Particularly one-word titles such as, for example, “Claustrophobia” or “Illness.” Now, not all one-word titles are a problem. I mean the kind that explain or broadcast the poem’s “theme” to the reader. By “theme” in this case I don’t mean literary...