National Poetry Writing Month 2022 April 2nd 2022

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 the National Poetry Month in the United States of America and Canada. NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, or 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 Espesso Europia Coffee Shop in Abilene Tx while I was in the United States Air Force. This continued for many years when I ran my own poetry reading at Cannova's in Loves Park Illinois and attended the poetry slams at The green Mill in Chicago Illinois. 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 2009 I started participating in National Poetry Writing Month which became the basis for my book Wisdom From the Sack and Shaving Crop Circles in My Chest Hair. In 2020 I started publishing my podcast version of the challenge and those can be viewed here for 2020 and here for 2021. April 2nd Poetry Prompt And now for our daily prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words. Will you choose a word like “aprosexia,” which means “an inability to concentrate”? Or maybe something like “greenout,” which is “the relief a person who has worked or lived in a snowy area for a long time feels on seeing something fresh and green for the first time”? Whatever you choose, happy writing! April 2nd Poem Peel The Bones  2 April 2022  *Peel The Bones is the phrase I chose. PEEL-THE-BONES was a 19th century term for bitterly cold or windy weather—so to PEEL was to go out in unsuitable or insufficient clothing given the conditions. I had spent the hottest summer of my life up until then in San Antonio  With a man snarling at me for 6 weeks  Telling me bad things about my Mama  And threatening me with 6 more weeks of hell  If I didn’t finish a mile and a half run  He had our squadron up at 0400 every morning  Because he loved to run  And now I was running for my life  His breath on my neck  His threats  I’d never run so hard and so fast  And just like that I was headed back to Illinois  For the comfort of the snow and ice  Only to be told that I would be headed back to Texas in February  When I arrived in my death machine from the 70’s  It was Mid-Texas  Abilene, prettiest town I have ever seen  People there don’t treat you mean  But damn the weather was nothing I’d ever seen  In sweet Abilene, my Abilene  It was there that I began my fascination with working all night  It prepped me for grad school  It prepped me to be a dad of twins  But nothing prepped me for the wind  From big sky country  Nothing stopped the oppressive blowing  The howling, the strange noises from what I hoped were animals  I climbed on the expeditor truck that held 8 men  Each had black coffee steaming up to the dim light  Some were snoring  Others were playing cards  While we waited for the call  That would drop us off to fix the metal birds  That would become my reason for being there  We pulled up to tail number 1666, the little gremlin  SGT Couter called out Electrics  My trainer and I stood up  I grabbed the toolbox that almost froze to my bare hands  It was a liquid oxygen leak  And we would spend the next hour in the front wheel well  Two men, in the dark and cold  Our lower halves being pummeled   My field jacket was still packed away  My thermals were probably left at my home of record  That was the first night of my mistake  Being from Chicago  I thought I knew what freezing was  I thought I knew how ruthless mother nature could be  Seeing snowfall in June made me think I could endure anything  And that all Texans wore cowboy hats and died   When it got below freezing  But whatever deity was on call that night  Was more than determined   To give me the worst possible welcome  I considered peeing on myself to warm my legs  When my trainer told me  Next time dress for success  Don’t think that piss will warm you up  Because you’ll get frostbitten  And the expeditor won’t let you back on his truck  So, I stood in the cold that night  Thinking I’d never be warm again  Thinking that the frozen demons from home followed me here  Thinking it was too damn cold to think  My trainer took pity on me  He offered a drink of his coffee  Warned not to backwash  No sugar, no cream, just the blackness  The heat that kept me awake  That kept me alive  When we finished two hours later   It seemed like forever  He taught me how to make mud  And now every time I drink it  I shiver for a few moments  Then I drain the cup and pour another  Reaching Out To reach out to me, email [email protected] 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. Email: [email protected] YouTube Channel: Create Art Podcast YT Channel IG: @createartpodcast Twitter: @createartpod This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy