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
Goodbyes: Write about a time in your life you said goodbye to someone – this could be as simple as ending a mundane phone conversation, or harder goodbyes to close friends, family members, or former partners.
Todays Poem
Closed Casket
22 March 2023
I can hear you from over 20 years of you rotting in the ground
I idolized you and believed in everything you said
I was selfish, greedy, self-centered
I was a mistake; I was lucky to be alive
If I had been born earlier, I would have died in your womb
Like another child did
Or you would have aborted me
if the voices in your head told you to
#3 husband wanted to get you in the ground
So he could move onto his next 2 conquests
That person couldn’t even remember you said to have the lid closed
He has no Indigenous blood running through his veins
There was no medicine man that called me bright light
And no one dosed your coffee with PCP
The cologne that sperm donor wore, you weren’t allergic to
You just knew that he was on the prowl
And wanted him to know that you knew
So I wasn’t allowed to wear deodorant
And my sweaty pits smelled like the pot
Your oldest children smoked
When I saw you laying there with all that makeup on
I thanked the funeral director for their work
But I told him that it wasn’t you
I should have told the preacher to revoke the post humorous
Membership in their church
But I let sperm donor have his day of celebration
And just so you know
Although you probably already knew
You weren’t cold in the ground for a year
When he took his next bride
Who was so rich and smart
That he couldn’t drain her accounts
And there I was, a babbling weeping self-centered man child
Breaking down, fist bumping your casket
Counting the minutes until my next cigarette
Climbing in the car to put you 6 feet under
Sperm donor didn’t have the money for your headstone
And he never visited your grave with me
All those times I took the time to head back to the land of my torture
Replace plastic flowers and put trinkets that you treasured there
And not once did he come with me
You chose to end it all, and if you wondered if I missed you
I did, until the other night
When my child said she was self-centered, greedy, selfish and a mistake
I heard my voice in hers
And I knew then that I needed to smash that away
She is not you she is mine
and I no longer need you
Nor do I need your influence
Or your picture looking over me and my children
I won’t think about you on the anniversary of your death
Nor will I remember you on Mother's Day anymore
You have finally and completely become dead to me
Just like the sperm donor
Just like my heroes
Just like my love of scrambled memories
Just like the putrid and deranged love you showed me
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