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 5th Poetry Prompt
And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a mythical person or creature doing something unusual – or at least something that seems unusual in relation to that person/creature. For example, what does Hercules do when he loses a sock in the dryer? If a mermaid wants to pick up rock-climbing as a hobby, how does she do that? What happens when a mountain troll makes pancakes?
April 5th Poem
The Tame Sagittarius
5 April 2022
He sat in his stable and suffered through another gout attack
It had been forever since he had done archery practice
The catgut string on his bow was frayed and unusable
His belly had grown enormous
The oats he ate were replaced with Mt Dew and anything from Uber Eats
And nights that usually were the best time for hunting
Was now spent on video games
He had given up
He bought into the dream of leisure
The never-ending quest for the next thing ended abruptly
As those who honored his spirit
Emulated his independence
Decided that questing was only for the flickering screens
He had no reason to lead his followers
Or fulfill the visage they had of him
The immortality that many of us devote our lives, wealth and emotion on
Turned into an unspeakably horrible prison
And he just sat there and wallowed in his misery
Decades had passed while he was in this state
Until there was none left that followed the path he led for eons before
And when the last follower had passed away
The Sagittarius blinked out of existence
With no fanfare, no burning barge
Until one day a mortal discovered the writings of his former followers
He heard the call to bring him back into our realm
His legs gained strength
His heart began beating again
His vagabond mind started to drive him towards his newest disciple
And once again he took his spot in the pantheon of the gods
He regained his drive to search the cosmos
And imparted immortality to his mortal connection
As they explore the Universe together
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.
- Email: timothy@createartpodcast.com
- YouTube Channel: Create Art Podcast YT Channel
- IG: @createartpodcast
- Twitter: @createartpod
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