Poetry Prompt for April 26, 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.

prompt for the day asks you to write a portrait poem that focuses on or plays with the meaning of the subject’s name. This could be a self-portrait, a portrait of a family member or close friend, or even a portrait of a famous or historical person.   

Defined By A Name 

26 April 2023 

How can I honor a god that doesn’t honor me back 

It's not that I don’t believe, simply I don’t believe as you do 

My idea is less personal and more expansive 

But stick with coloring in the lines 

It’s what you really want to do 

I wasn’t there being Paul's bunk mate 

It’s not my fault that he hijacked your religion 

That guy was a two fer part Jewish and part Greek 

So, I hope he can make a great falafel gyro 

Hold the pork 

You may think I am rich 

And I have some student loans to show you 

You may think I am masculine 

And my ex-boyfriends will tell you the same 

I like to shock people's perceptions 

That’s why I took on my nickname 

I am strong and nerdy 

I am so many contradictions 

An Anarchist in Libertarian clothes 

From blue-collar 80-hour work weeks to two flights of stairs commute 

Have fun unspooling my threads 

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