What is National Poetry Writing Month?
Welcome, art enthusiasts and wordsmiths alike, to another episode of Create Art Podcast! We are diving headfirst into the enchanting world of poetry as we celebrate National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). This annual event, which takes place every April, encourages poets and aspiring writers around the globe to embrace their creativity and commit to writing a poem each day for the entire month.
The Beauty of National Poetry Writing Month:
NaPoWriMo, similar to its prose-centric counterpart National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), is a celebration of the written word and the boundless creativity that can flow when one dedicates themselves to a daily practice. Poets of all levels of expertise are invited to take part, from seasoned wordsmiths to those just dipping their toes into the vast ocean of verse.
Create Art Podcast has always been a haven for artists to share their creative processes, and NaPoWriMo offers a unique opportunity for poets to reflect on their craft. With a daily commitment to producing poetry, participants discover new facets of their writing style, experiment with various forms, and explore uncharted emotional territories.
Prompt for today
Today we’d like you to start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio of very different things would perceive a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).
Poem for Today
The Father the Kids and the unholy spirit
5 April 24
I lied many times to protect you
And I told you to never lie to me
I said your grandparents were dead
So that's only a half-lie
I told you some of the horrors that befell me at their hands
And I told you I was trying to be better than them
Because they didn’t know what they were doing
That was a lie
Through living, I discovered many of the things they told me were lies
And so you too will discover that there is no tooth fairy
There is no Easter Bunny or Santa Claus
There are evil people in the world that want to destroy you
And some of them you are related to
And that is what I have to protect you from
So, they are dead to me
And it's not too much of a lie
And I want you to not live in lies
Because when we live in lies
We are living in fear
And there is enough of that to go around
I don’t want you to fear the dark
Or the monsters that lurk in your head
Or the monsters that lurk in mine
I’ve killed them many times
He told us from a young age that his parents had died
We felt sorry for him and compassion
He told us eventually what had happened
When we turned 18
When he thought we could handle the truth
But we missed out on having a grandfather
When all the other kids had nice normal families
We wonder what else he has lied about
Is he really our father
Is he really kind and protective
Can we ever trust anything he says
This family lives in the shadows
And we want to see the light
Is the anger we feel at being lied to
The anger he struggles with
Is that what he has passed onto us
Or is it just another lie
He says he lied to protect us
Is that another lie
Was he just a spoiled brat mama’s boy
Who had never seen the light
You killed me off prematurely
Didn't send pictures of my grandkids
What did I do to you to deserve this
I gave you a happy home
I gave you the fear of my god
I gave everything I had to prepare you for this world
And you dashed it aside
I can’t forgive you ever for what you have done
And now that I have really died
You won’t be receiving the pictures that you begged from me
You will never understand why
I did what I did because it was what I knew to be good
And I lied about your mother many times
But she was a psycho and a bad lay
And you were a mistake and costly
And now you are killing off the family line
I told my third wife that you took after your psycho mother
And that's why we don’t talk
I told her you were possessed from long ago
And were a lost cause
I eventually gave up on ever hearing from you again
My only biological son
And I never reached out
I attended my church and got solace from them
In hopes that one day you would return like the prodigal parable
And make me proud for the first time
But you never did and here I am six feet under the ground
Are you happy yet
Have you been vindicated
As I lay here and rot
Are you happy yet
Spreading lies that help you believe your narrative
So what if I hit on your bride
So what if I picked you last
So what if I took from you the most precious thing in the world, your innocence
You should have seen what I went through
What I protected you from
Lies are the way we deal with the world
And lies will come back to you
And haunt you at night
Like I will do
And lies are all we have left
The lies we tell ourselves
The lies we tell our children
You have been recruited into this world of lies
So don’t think you are above it
Don’t think you are immune
Don’t think you are unsullied
Because I took what is most precious from you
Reach Out To The Podcast
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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