Poetry Prompt April 8, 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.

Last Words: Use the last sentence from the nearest book as the inspiration for the first line of your poem.

“And indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled” The Plague by Camus

Joy is Always Imperiled

29 March 2023

Don’t live in the warm glow of love 

In the past it has left by the morning 

That was the way I used to be 

And then fatherhood happened 

The smiles and gurgling of two babies 

Changed my heart 

I wanted to be around for more than my ten-year plan  

I was able to overlook the few faults of my lover 

And she was able to overlook mine 

I’ve seen fatherhood calm other men 

Make them look at the long game 

And forget that it’s not about them anymore 

It’s about what they brought into this world 

It’s about bringing a fresh mind into the collective unconsciousness 

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