POETRY FOR 30 DAYS IN APRIL DAY 23

Project Details

Hello friend, I am Timothy Kimo Brien, head instigator at Create Art Podcast where we help you to tame the inner critic and create more than we consume. Every year in April National Poetry Writing Month occurs, this is a challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days and comes from the NaPoWriMo site. When you participate you are given a prompt every day for 30 days and you can choose to follow the prompt or not. Each prompt has a commentary with it and a style of poetry that you may not be familiar with. I enjoy it because it stretches my creative muscles and helps me organize my thoughts. I also really enjoy a good challenge. There is also an opportunity to read other people's work as they post on their websites and for you to comment on their work, giving them encouragement or offering a suggestion. Care to join me on this journey?

Day 23 Prompt

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. This could be as simple as using a line or image from another poem as a jumping-off point, or it could be a more formal poetic response to the argument or ideas raised in another poem. You might use a favorite (or least favorite poem) as the source for your response. And if you’re having trouble finding a poem to respond to, here are a few that might help you generate ideas: “This World is Not Conclusion,” by Peter Gizzi, “In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever,” by Wanda Coleman, “La Chalupa, the Boat,” by Jean Valentine, or “Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm,” by Carl Phillips.

Day 23 Poem

Whimper – response to T.S.Elliot’s The Hollow Men

Remembrance

We are the ones who aren’t innocent

We do not ask for mercy

Admitting our “sins” to those others deem worthy

Is not the path we have chosen

We just ask to be in your thoughts

We want to be part of your memory

The holy life escaped us

As we tread our own way to our new home

Entrance

As we walk into the new realm

Some try to hide in shame

Others try to cover themselves in hopes

that they will be transported to a happier place

We are being watched obtrusively

Every movement calculated

So some of us stop moving altogether

But the wind pushes us all forward

To our unknown destination

Arrival

We are here

But not with each other

Those that have traveled this path

Disappeared when I woke

A faint sun has risen

And the stars seem almost brighter

I am alone

And the urge to keep walking has ceased

This feels like it will be my home

I will pay whatever eternal penance here

Among the nothingness

Empty

As I look around

The eyes that once penetrated my soul

Are no longer here

The next day, if that is what I can call it

I see the footprints around my camp

But not the footprints I created

I know they are not mine

As I step in them

Most do not fit

Either to large or small

And I feel the fresh warmth

From another’s foot

As I step inside their print

Eternal Shadow

The sun never blazes as it did

The world feels numb

My body doesn’t react as it once did

And my emotions are dulled

The songs that brought me hope

Have warped into a doomsday nursery rhyme

After countless days

I have forgotten my name

After eons, I have forgotten how to count

At some point, I decreased to a whisper

Until there was no I

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 lets start that conversation.