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A Minute with Mike: An Ode to Bad Poetry

Listen to this Minute with Mike on Stateside.Oh, Bad Poetry, 

Why are you written?

Why are you listened to? 

Perhaps the audience is held captive out of perceived rudeness at a coffee house or locked in 

a car barreling down the highway with the radio just out of reach. Wink wink nod nod.

Why are you scribbled then recited?

Are we afraid of silence? 

Bad Poetry, do you help us cover long, uncomfortable dead air?

(long silence with GarrisonKellor-esquenose breathing)

An everlasting relentless circle of rebirth and 

resurrection and recycling of bad, not-good sentences, thoughtless intent, implausible metaphors and 

just plain lousy writing...

In fact, somewhere at this very moment, people are participating in the magically mundane 

ritual of bad poetry.

And with broadcast towers, satellites and compressed 1's and 0's ... you, Bad Poetry shall 

soar into the darkest depths of the universe for all eternity.

And the man from Nantucket smiles.

(tepid applause, audience feigns interest)

Copyright 2021 Michigan Radio. To see more, visit Michigan Radio.

Mike Blank is a producer and editor for Stateside. Inspired by a story on a bag of Uncle Ray’s potato chips, Blank created the satire segment “A Minute with Mike” which can be heard on Stateside. A proud U-M drop-out and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Wayne State, Blank first started working in radio in 1998 and has worked at WKHM, WDET, WXYT and WWJ. Blank won the 2012 Michigan Association of Broadcasters “Best Morning Show” award as the lone producer of the Charlie Langton Show. A Michigander since age 2, Blank has resided in Detroit since 2004 where he enjoys walks to Tiger’s games and watching wild pheasants in the vacant lots across the street.