Poetry for April 2, 2023

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 Misfits: How it feels when you don’t belong in a group of others   Todays Poem The Wind Gets Cold Out Here  11 Jan 2023  Mancave  It was a few years back during a thanksgiving meal  Seated with over 100 folks in uniform  Many of them my clients  It was a work function, attendance was strongly recommended  So, walking through the food line they set up  Making nice with everyone   Sat with a group of clients  And just like that, as happens in dinner tables all across America  Someone was making cracks at Michelle Obama  Saying how they shouldn’t let moneys wear such nice clothes  And no, it wasn’t the drunk racist uncle that no one listens to  It was a white college educated professional woman  Who happened to be in uniform  Who happened to be my client  Who happened to be looking for work with the Feds  Excusing myself  Wasn’t going to try and bash my head against the wall  As others in the group laughed along  Guess who she doesn’t work for  And the next line I was going to write  Was going to have been  Guess who got blackballed  But then I thought  Am I that far removed from them  I took the next job  After I lost three clients in 6 months  One to cancer, who wouldn’t admit defeat  One to a hold-up gone wrong on his last day of duty in front of his daughter  One who decided to take a long walk into a lake  I took that job to get away   To work with those that were told  To put kids in cages  And now their conscious got them better of them  And they were offing themselves in droves  The job was to make them feel better   And I get how they got into this mess  They had no future  No hope to achieve anything better  So, they signed themselves over  To uphold the law  And there I am, giving aid and comfort  To someone’s enemy  To someone’s nightmare  Will I be tried for war crimes  When it is my turn to cross over  Comforting those who do the things   That we won’t do  Who we rage against  Who are following orders  I have empathy for them  But I’ll never be in their club  Reaching Out To The Podcast 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   Special Message If you have found value in this podcast please feel free to share it with a friend as that is the best way to find new podcasts. I want this to be a 5-star podcast in your eyes so let me know what you would like to see. Speaking about sharing with a friend, check out my other podcast Find A Podcast About where I help you outsmart the algorithm and find your next binge-worthy podcast. You can find that podcast at findapodcastabout.xyz. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy