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
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
Todays Poem
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
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