Michael Jackman, Writer

[Note: In honor of New Year's, here's one of my seasonal radio pieces from the archives - it first aired Friday 12/28/01 on WFPL Louisville, KY.]

As you know, New Year’s is coming, and with it, the dreaded resolution cycle.The cycle works like this: Two months of resolve are followed by a month of guilt and [...]

It’s Christmas season again. Time to republish this essay, newly revised this year. – mj
Each year for Christmas Santa brings me a dilemma: How should I, a follower of the six-pointed star rather than the cross, reply to the endless stream of “Merry Christmas” wishes?
Scenario: It’s December 20 and I’m at my local walk-in hair [...]

Oh my – it’s Thanksgiving again – time to post my radio essay first broadcast on WFPL Louisville, 89.3 FM, January 4, 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Michael Jackman.
In scattered families, the holiday break is time for the ingathering of the exiles. So there I was last week, driving to Amelia Island, Florida from Louisville for [...]

“You can’t run away from [adversity]. You do what you have to do, no matter what it takes, as long as it’s honest.” – David Loeb Kahn (David Loeb ben Natan v’ Frieda Leah)

In honor of David Loeb Kahn, my wife’s beloved grandfather, I’m reposting here three pieces I wrote about his life for his [...]

(I just received an e-mail from someone who remembered this radio commentary by title from the air and from my self-published book Planned Spontaneity, so I thought in honor of that e-mail I’d post it on the site. Thanks for the e-mail!)
First broadcast on WFPL Louisville, 89.3 F.M. June 21, 2002. Copyright © 2002 [...]

by Michael Jackman. First broadcast 12/13/01 WFPL, Louisville, 89.3 FM
Note: 6/11/09 – This has been a really popular radio essay, and I’m posting it here by request. I’d put it in podcasts, but I don’t think I have a recording of this one. Okay, the request is by my wife Dana, whose first date experience [...]

April is National Poetry Month
The 2002 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Contest
Honorable Mention
Mary Oliver, Judge
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 [...]

For some reason I forgot to formally announce that my latest “A More Perfect Fit” column is up on the autochannel.com. This one is called, “Toward a More Perfect MPG Part 3.” I made the announcement as an afterthough in a previous post, and I don’t want my editor to think I’m not into the [...]

Here’s a link to my second column for The Auto Channel, “A More Perfect Fit.” Enjoy.

(First published in Snitch, January 15, 2003)
Tony Giavonni has had better luck finding a job than anyone I know. His problem is keeping one. Last October, Giavonni appeared in this column for having quit a job rather than install illegal software.
After being denied his unemployment claim, Giavonni finally thought his employment woes were over when [...]