Poetry Prompt April 29, 2023

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.

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.

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.

Now, write your own two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal. At some point in the poem, describe the food or meal as if it were a specific kind of person. Give the food/meal at least one line of spoken dialogue. 

Thanksgiving Dinner 

29 April 2023 

I never really thought about this meal when I was younger 

We always drove the hour that took forever 

No rest stops unless you call pissing in the corn fields a rest stop 

We always left before dawn 

And were lucky to return with our lives 

We would eat freshly slaughtered ham 

Nothing tasted sweeter 

The mashed potatoes not from a box 

Was chunky and gritty smashed rather than mashed 

With all the cousins in their bare house 

And each year a James Bond flick on the background 

The cigarettes overflowed in the ashtray 

The beers and wine were flowing, even for the kids 

I’d like to say I tasted my first beer there 

But then I’d be lying to you 

Just like all the lies of “yeah we are good to drive” 

Before the days of MADD and knowing better 

One day I stopped going 

Could have been because my folks found god 

He was hiding out in the churches 

That met when I was watching wrestling 

And we as a family turned away  

I didn’t really get that feeling again 

Yes, there was destructive activities 

That I can see from the safety of time 

“I didn’t let you die during those days 

Yes, there was the accident one year before the times of DUI’s 

Yes, there was the car on fire that you passed without a care 

But I didn’t let you die 

I kept you as safe as I could for something else” 

When I lived alone 

With the roommates and on the 33rd floor above the Lake  

The diner that I had frequented was open 

Taking in others like me 

Without friends or a family 

And on the TV, still black and white 

A game of hockey played quietly 

While the others were munching on turkey 

I became engrossed  

And that was when 

I decided the next year to hold a feast 

But unknown to me what the next year would bring 

I was alone in my apartment  

I had finally escaped the crowds 

Making a meal for two 

In a studio barely big enough for one 

In case there was a knock at the door 

There was none 

But the next year was different 

I had stepped out and allowed myself to feel 

To become attached to those who enlightened me 

On being a human 

On being open and vulnerable 

And that year I had a few friends over  

Who had nowhere else to go 

And we dined like kings 

“I am preparing you for a much better feast 

A feast that you can share with family and friends 

A family you created 

And friends who were true” 

And so, one year of cooking and clamoring 

There I was 

A Husband and father of three mentor to a nephew 

And friends who brought friends to feast 

We dined on duck 

And other delicacies 

We left a spot open for anyone who had nowhere to go 

And my children sat there and asked 

Why the empty spot 

And we said together 

“That spot is for me 

That spot represents the chair that I once sat at 

Alone in my studio 

That chair represents those who couldn’t make it to a home” 

With confused looks no more questions came 

And a small wish was born that day 

A wish that they wouldn’t have to carry that tradition forward 

A wish that one day I wouldn’t either 

A wish that the past could be forgiven 

And a wish for a better year ahead 

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