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.
Poetry Prompt I Used
The Untouchable: Something that will always be out of reach
Todays Poem
Penetration
1 Jan 23, 2013
I look into your eyes
Those pools of blue are so like mine
Every morning I ask the same question
Wanting to know what is going on behind the window
Your voice repeats things that your mother was too young to know about
There was no way you would have heard those words and phrases from me
I’ve done my best to try and forget the person who originally uttered them
But you can pick her out of a crowded picture from 1979
I want to save you the anguish she knew and caused
I couldn’t save her in the end
And it was a tragic end
Relying on everything being provided by
The one who molested your children
Cheated on you with the church secretary
Demanded that we all attend that church 5 times a week
Knowing what we knew
Being the embarrassment of the congregation
I’ve taught my child to say fuck you to the President
Put a middle finger up to the patriarchy and systemic racism
When they try to grab her by the pussy
She knows that she is not to stop stabbing until the knife won’t come out of her attacker’s chest, groin, brain, heart
She is to use the knives my mother chased my brother and I around the house with
Screaming that we were possessed, and she would be taking the demons from our souls
Even if it killed us
My daughter knows how to slay the demons of Diablo
And those who put on the skin of humans
She knows how to use her words to stab at my heart
My gift to her was anger
My gift to her was rage
She knows how to wield it
I have no need to interrogate the people she will bring to our house
Nor will I clean a rifle or a chainsaw in their presence
Unless I am actually doing lawn work
I have no need to intimidate in order to protect her
She can take care of herself if the task is too large
Then she knows when to bring me in, to finish
And here we are
After another screaming match with her mother
She is doing her best to look intimidating
Her frown flexed
Her gaze intense into my eyes
Her breath shallow and quick
And just as she cannot decipher my demeanor
She has no idea I am actually in control of the situation just by sitting here quietly
Motionlessly
Emotionlessly
She ponders how I can exude so much unfeeling, such detachment from humanity
She doesn’t know that I am scanning her for a crack
A chink in her armor that I helped forge
A way to see into her inner workings, her deep thoughts
The dreams she refuses to elaborate on
She won’t know until she reads this
And even that would be a stroke of luck
If she finds it and realizes it is about her
She’s a bit too much like her long dead grandmother
And I am ignorant of my obscure grandfather
So, there will be no repeating of N.N.B.
I wish a reflection my Mother of choice
For now, I will stand by
Looking deep into the eyes of my child
Attempting to peer into her soul
Attempting to steer her away from the paths we have generationally tread
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