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 National Poetry Month in the United States of America and Canada.
This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, 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 Espresso Europia Coffee Shop in Abilene Tx while I was in the United States Air Force. 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 2020 I started publishing my podcast version of the challenge and those can be viewed here for 2020 and here for 2021.
What I am doing differently for Poetry Month
For 2023 I am not going to be just writing poems in April, I will be writing poems all year round. Also, since I will be writing all year round, I am using a different source for my prompts. There is a blog called Think Written and you can find it here. I will also be performing these works at Katora Coffee House here in Fredericksburg Virginia on their Friday Night Snaps Open Mic Poetry reading. Some of the podcast episodes you will hear will be a live recording of me reading the poem to a live audience, other times I will be reading it in the comfort of my home studio. I do plan on posting my work to the NaPoWriMo site and interacting with the poets there and see if they want to read their work on this podcast.
Todays Poetry Prompt
Today’s prompt challenges you to also write a love poem, one that names at least one flower, contains one parenthetical statement, and in which at least some lines break in unusual places.
Giving Love Another Try
25 April 2023
I wasn’t content
With being
Alone
But I wasn’t interested
In sharing
Everything
I wasn’t content
With the
Life
But I wasn’t interested
In starting
Over
I wasn’t content
With the
Past
But I wasn’t interested
In rehashing
Us
I wasn’t content
With the
Situation
But I wasn’t interested
In developing
Feelings
(I found contentment in your eyes, I found interest in your smile I found tulips where you walked))
You didn’t want
Just another
Body
But you did
Try to
Love
You didn’t want
This to
Fail
But you did
Rely on
Defenses
You didn’t want
Me to
Escape
But you did
Honor my
Freedom
(You found where I hid my heart, You found a way to trust me You found daisies to put everywhere)
We weren’t sure
About our
Compatibility
But we tried
To make
It
We weren’t sure
About being
Dependent
But we tried
With open
Minds
We weren’t sure
About our
Lasting
But we tried
And are
Trying
(We were met with scoffs, We sometimes scoffed at ourselves we planted a family)
We weren’t sure but we tried
You didn’t want but you did
I wasn’t content but I wasn’t interested
(And so far, it’s the journey
That we needed to be on
Together)
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