…in which some of my published writing is presented
At the Spalding Con manuscript workshop, let by Kathleen Driskell, she had us do many exercises to revise our poetry manuscripts. One of them involved cutting a list of our titles into separate strips and arranging them in sections with our strongest poems as bookends. The workshop has been so helpful in making my manuscript stronger. Paper and scissors – still useful tools in this technological age.
“Mantua, 1606”
2nd Prize, 2014 Raynes Poetry Competition, Joan Larkin, Judge
Jewish Currents, April 2014
His Grace, Duke Gonzaga, exempted
Salomoni Rossi Hebreo,respected court musician and composer,
from wearing the mandatory Jews’
Yellow Badge of Shame
Rossi always kept tucked
in his sleeve as he walked
from Mantua’s ghetto to the court
he fingered it like his viol,
polyphonic voices winding
in his head singing
the badge of shame was pride
no badge of shame was shame
no badge of shame was pride
the badge of shame was shame
as he walked
the no-man’s land between
the ghetto and the court
© 2013 Michael Jackman
Abandoned Barns
by Michael Jackman
This barn was newly raised, once. This patch
of ground was hallowed by its arching ribs,
aromas of the earth rose through the thatch
of sweet straw quilted over new-made cribs.
The hay-loft pulley, swaying in the sun,
was an eternal lamp, the double-doors,
an entrance to a tabernacle one
approached to worship during morning chores.
And now the roof is broken. Now the rain
pours through the holes and floods the hallowed ground.
Wind blows among wood skeletons, the stain
of rotting hay, its protest made, a sound
raised up to summon us to patch the roof.
Far from abandoned barns, we stand aloof.
Thomas Merton Poetry of the Spiritual Contest (Runner up, 2001)
Thomas Merton Seasonal (2002)
Been feeling down about two things lately – a year of poetry and poetry manuscript rejections, and the fact that the publications in print journals – this poetry I’ve written to be read and enjoyed, disappears into obscurity because, really, who reads journals? So, feeling for the first time in a long time that no one gives a shit about my poetry and not wanting to even go to one open mic lately, I decided to listen when Sarah encouraged me to blog more. Today I’m off from school and meetings, so you’re getting the outpouring of the tiny blog posts. Which is the best way to write on the Internet, I think.
In my class I’ve been working so hard to establish a “free speech zone,” but I think I goofed up when I pressed a student for evidence to back up some claims that police brutality is the same as it always has been. I believe I inhibited the students’ feeling of not being judged rather than making the “zone” a safe place. It’s a fine balance between free speech with rebuttal and “chilling” a conversation, which by definition has to allow dissent even when the topic is uncomfortable. I’m still trying to negotiate that fine line. Hopefully, this class of freshmen writers, which has been VERY enthusiastic, beyond all my expectations, will continue to feel the class is open and that they can explore their first attempts at reasoning on issues, no matter how tentative and perhaps uninformed, without feeling silenced. I’m committed to this pedagogy, but it’s hard to do sometimes.
Mike Jackman, Singer-Songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist, Writer
