National Poetry Writing Month 2022 April 12th 2022

History of National Poetry Writing Month

National Poetry Writing Month (also known as NaPoWriMo) is a creative writing project held annually in April in which participants attempt to write a poem each day for one month. NaPoWriMo coincides with the National Poetry Month in the United States of America and Canada.

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), she started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April, and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project.

My History with National Poetry Writing Month

I started writing poetry in 1988 after I had been exposed to T.S. Elliot in my honors English class in high school. In 1992 I started reading my poetry publicly at Espesso Europia Coffee Shop in Abilene Tx while I was in the United States Air Force. This continued for many years when I ran my own poetry reading at Cannova's in Loves Park Illinois and attended the poetry slams at The green Mill in Chicago Illinois. While living in Rockford Illinois I published my first book of poetry Throwing Yourself at the Ground and Missing in 2007 followed by Postcards From Someone You Don't Know in 2008 Wisdom From the Sack in 2010 and Shaving Crop Circles In My Chest Hair in 2017. You can get copies of all of these books in my merch section. In 2009 I started participating in National Poetry Writing Month which became the basis for my book Wisdom From the Sack and Shaving Crop Circles in My Chest Hair. In 2020 I started publishing my podcast version of the challenge and those can be viewed here for 2020 and here for 2021.

April 12th Poetry Prompt

Today’s prompt (optional, as always) should come as no surprise. Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. Whether it’s an atom, a button, a hummingbird’s egg, dollhouse furniture, or the mythical world’s smallest violin, I hope you enjoy your poetic adventures into the microscopic.

April 12th Poem

Voices In My Head

12 April 2022

The sparks that go through our brains

Sometimes take a detour to the dark side

They don’t know what we need

They just travel the endless maze of neurons

And go to wherever they feel a need to be

Taking the path of least resistance

But so often we take the path we are most familiar with

A thought is just an electrical charge

Neither good nor bad

And that doesn’t provide me with any comfort

Since we are taught (and as I teach to my babies)

The difference between good and bad

But do we really know

Or are we just hoping that someone was right

That they had their neurons firing off at the right time and taking the right path

That seems to be putting a lot of trust to someone whom we don’t know

And someone whom we can’t question

So, I’ll keep listening to the thoughts that make their way in my brain

Knowing that some of my pathways are blocked or broken

But just thinking about how these tiny charges can affect the whole world

Blows my mind

Just realizing that with one thought we can destroy the planet

From something with less power than a battery for a child's toy

Sleep with that if you will

I’ll just hope for the best

And pray that those who can destroy us on their whim

Get their circuits shorted

Before they can take us all out

Reaching Out

To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and let's start that conversation.