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

Dear Reader: What audience enjoys reading the type of poetry you like to write? Craft a note to your potential audience that addresses their biggest fears, hopes, and dreams. 

Todays Poem

Read with Caution 

8 April 2023 

You who are searching for a familiar voice 

You who want to laugh at me and my mishaps 

You who really like how I keep it real 

You have no idea who I am 

I give you a peek inside 

But I gotta say I cleaned up the back room 

If you suddenly drop in unexpected 

You'd see something completely different 

You think you know my political affiliation 

But guess what kiddos, I am as loyal to them 

As they are to me 

Being an anarchist in libertarian clothes is hard to comprehend 

I used to smoke cigs 

And I talked about them forever 

With a cup of joe and lusting after the dark-haired barista 

The only problem is I was too shy to talk to her  

I used to have a drink or three 

And I just got dizzy and sick  

There was no pontifications 

That rattled the cages  

I used to get high 13 times a day 

I kept count at some point, I don’t remember when  

But now I can’t partake 

Because I love my pension and Retirment more than Mary 

I drove around the country to visit friends 

Now I can’t stand to drive an hour to get to work 

Traffic angers me more 

Than injustice 

If you knew me when I was fearless 

If you knew me when I was invulnerable 

If you knew me way back when 

Then you know I was not any of those things 

I’ve always been a teddy bear 

I was the person who would be up at 3 in the morning 

And you could call me and have me listen 

But now, at 3 AM 

I only get up to scare nightmares away 

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