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
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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