Poetry Prompt April 3, 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.

Stranger Conversations: Start the first line of your poem with a word or phrase from a recent passing conversation between you and someone you don’t know.  

The Insufficiency of Your Love 

10 March 2023 

The insufficiency of your love 

Could have kept me alive longer 

Raise your hand as high as you can 

Now raise it higher 

What the hell is that? 

That is the insufficiency of your love 

If you could have taken a moment 

And thought about someone outside of your brain 

Maybe just maybe you would have picked me 

But you chose the most athletic kids to play ball with 

Reminding me that although being last picked by you 

Because no one else would pick me at all 

Was what I should expect 

When you taught me the meaning of trophy family 

Without saying a word, 

I embraced the role of being an embarrassment  

I delved into the depths of De Sade and other of that denizen 

Knowing I was stabbing your heart 

Until I declared you dead to me 

Your love and acceptance  

Is no longer required or desired 

Yes, that is my blood on that knife 

The same one your silent partner chased me around the house with 

Yes, these cuts are in cursive  

So, I can remember them and lie to my children  

Who can read what I wrote 

I hear remnants of your voice in mine 

Sometimes I just want to rip out my throat 

And silence both of us 

Sometimes when I look at this husk 

I see a foggy glimpse of you 

And smash my face against the mirror 

The insufficiency of your love wasn’t what killed me off 

That was all my doing 

I wouldn’t give you the pleasure of thinking 

That what you did caused this decision 

I took myself out of the picture years ago 

Ensuring whatever influenced your existence 

Never saw the light of day again 

It was easy, quick, and not a tear was shed 

And when it was done 

I put on my new skin 

Replaced the diseased innards 

Promptly forgot where I came from 

And set my compass for elsewhere 

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