Poetry Prompt April 9, 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

Holding It In 

3 April 2023 

The ideas we don’t share 

The voices running through our heads  

We dare not whisper to those around us 

The weight of the wrongs we have committed in the name of love 

The frustration of believing the inner dictator vs the creator 

The need to spill our guts 

When we know it will make us feel better 

But we are too worried about how those outside our brains will react 

The fear that finding out our truth is not shared by any other soul 

Looking foolish is not the fashion statement we want to employ 

Ridicule awaits when we emotionally expose ourselves 

So, we drop trow and plant our butt cheeks against the window 

My firewall is struggling not to be breached 

But I don’t really give a shit about your insecurities 

Carrying the secrets of decades has improved my musculature 

Also, it has caused microscopic cracks in all my bones 

I pay the monthly garbage disposal fee 

To my therapist  

Hoping that no one is dumpster-diving through his notes 

I have lugged all this baggage, so you don’t have to be exposed 

I kept it in a lead-lined case so the radiation wouldn’t seep into your body 

The glowing from within escaped out of the cracks of the case 

And became my nightlight 

Clutching the pain of all the years 

Was the best coping mechanism as seen on TV 

Being above the fray, refusing to break down 

Or become flexible 

Was the ideal I thought would work 

Only to find it eating me up from the inside 

And leaving me with few salvageable innards 

My fear was that I was nothing without the pain 

And I have found that the pain is what caused more pain 

In this aching frame 

So I release it 

The torrent that has been encapsulated in my mind 

It doesn’t feel better, but it feels better to feel 

And finding out that is what I was craving 

That is what the hole in my soul was missing 

Makes it easier to move on with today 

And let the past die in peace 

To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and let's start that conversation.

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