Hi, everyone, welcome to Poetry Night.

The poetry has been coming fast and loose for me. There’s times where I have no idea what I’m going to write about, and other times when the words flow for me.

You might know I am a teacher, but did you know there is no requirement in the state curriculum of Iowa (where I live and teach) for us to teach about poetry? It’s a fact. But maybe it’s for the best. Poetry is one of those things you can’t force down someone’s throat. They have to be drawn to it, like I was later in life.

I never want to say I’ve got a handle on it, but during the past several months it feels to me I have a better handle on how to be creative in the poetry genre. But I’ve been writing either pro or semi-pro for nearly 30 years now, and there’s no way I will ever say I know everything there is to know about writing. To paraphrase the Russian chess champion Alexander Alekhine, an entire lifetime is not long enough to learn everything there is to know about writing. And I definitely don’t have enough time to learn everything there is to learn about poetry. So, I always have to keep in mind I’m always learning no matter what.

Hi, everyone, welcome to Poetry Night. I’ve got an interesting couple of poems to share with you, about both the digital world and the analog world. Hope you enjoy them.

I’ve been writing poetry with more regularity in recent months. For the year 2025 I have written six of them. At least two of them were not for publication in the short term or maybe even in the long term. It’s been therapeutic to express myself like that and not worry about other people’s opinions.

If You’re Interested in my Poetry Here…

My first collection of poetry is out now.

Since Substack doesn’t quite have the setup for this, I’ve set up something here at Liegois Media. I set up my own Internet storefront page where you can order my chapbook for $6 per copy. This is the link, as is the one below.

Now, on to the poetry.

This weekend I found myself again (slightly to my surprise) on the road and away from my expected places. I spent a lot of time in between places to stay due to circumstances beyond my control last year around this time, and it ended up inspiring quite a bit of poetry. To me, it’s not a surprise tonight inspired at least one more poem, as well. This was influenced not just by my own situation, but the circumstances of a group of people I have been looking into for research regarding another fiction project I have going on.

350 Days

22 March 2025, Des Moines, Iowa

As I hang out

In an overly equipped hotel room

I realize I’ve gone back

To life on the road.

I have to admit I’ve whined

About not knowing the rules of where I’ve traveled

Or the procedures

Or the routines

Or how to pack up and pack out

When I get on the road.

But as I try to accentuate the positive

And eliminate the negative in my life

I learn about how pro wrestlers

Who are people I admire in my life

Had to spend 350 days out of 365

On the road

At their craft

Making money to support themselves and others

On at least two different continents.

I wonder

I speculate

How much change and discombobulation

They had to go through

While getting their bodies and brains beaten in.

I submitted an earlier version of this poem to the Midwest Writing Center’s Iron Pen contest for the poetry category, I thought I did well, but the Society of Great River poets from Burlington, Iowa, had a few good suggestions for me. Those results and my own combine to the poem you will see below.

Our People, Our Tribe

28 February 2025, Fort Madison, Iowa

I spent years gathering electronic friends through screens large and small

Only to find them as elusive as electrons

And just as invisible.

People who purported to be what they showed me in pictures and videos

But whose existences were no more permanent

Than flashes of static.

Once I traveled the electronic highways and byways to find my own people,

But the bots and electronic beings clogged the wires and waves

With no places for humans.

So I left those places.

I traveled longer in the analog world, epic treks compared to electronic laps

True humans and potential friends were sparse in the expanse

I found them.

People with whom I shared their homes, cooked their meals,

Whom I lived with, not observed and judged

And came to grok.

In the end, I found my modest tribe, insignificant to the electronic hordes,

We built our own world, we few and true

With love for each other.

That’s it for tonight. We’ll see what April brings.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Hi, everyone, welcome to Poetry Night. I’ve got an interesting couple of poems to share with you, about both the digital world and the analog world. Hope you enjoy them.

I’ve been writing poetry with more regularity in recent months. For the year 2025 I have written six of them. At least two of them were not for publication in the short term or maybe even in the long term. It’s been therapeutic to express myself like that and not worry about other people’s opinions.

If You’re Interested in my Poetry Here…

My first collection of poetry¹ is out now.

Since Substack doesn’t quite have the setup for this, I’ve set up something here at Liegois Media. I set up my own Internet storefront page where you can order my chapbook for $6 per copy. This is the link, as is the one below.

As I might have mentioned, I’ve become a bit wary of people acting like friends online but eventually seeing me as an opportunity to make some money. That likely prompted the following poem.

Screening

19 February 2025/Fort Madison, Iowa

Stuck at home

Huddled by yourself

Looking for human relations

You turn to the screen.

The screen is fast

The screen can take you anywhere

The screen sets up the relationship

But you wonder if a relationship can be trusted

As much as a flickering screen

Can a voice and picture on the screen be trusted

If a bot can recreate it

And can a vibe be checked

Through that colorful screen

Even if it covers your living room wall?

The second poem is something of a recollection of how wonderful some analog interaction between people can be. It’s something I increasingly treasure.

Greetings

19 February 2025, Fort Madison, Iowa

When you go out of your house

To shake a new person’s hand

To hear a trusted voice say, “I’d like you to meet…”

And words dance through the air

As you find out more about them

Their lives

Their hobbies and interests

How you watched the same movies

Knew about the same types of sports

And you remember how you used to meet and greet

In the days before The Screen and The WiFi.

You take in the panorama of your scene

As the food and drink and laughs flow

And what strikes you is how biological the meeting is

Rather than digital.

That’s it for tonight. I thought I was running out of topics for poetry, but new themes keep popping up in my work. We’ll see what March brings.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

1. By the way, feel free to skip over this if you saw it before and move on to the actual poetry. ↩︎