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
Our prompt for today (optional, as always) takes its inspiration from Pablo Neruda, the Chilean-born poet and Nobel Prize Winner. While he is most famous in the English-speaking world for his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, he also wrote more than two hundred odes, and had a penchant for writing sometimes-long poems of appreciation for very common or mundane things. You can read English translations of “Ode to the Dictionary” at the bottom of this page, “Ode to My Socks” here, and “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” here.
Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own ode celebrating an everyday object.
Poem for Today
Ode to a Dear Friend
9 April 24
You sputter when I awake
Your smell warms my cold soul
The dark liquid you produce welcomes me
From the dream world into our dismal reality
So many ideas and conversations have been sparked by your power
Revolutions planned and implemented
Wars won or lost by your availability
You are more precious than gold
More effective than antipsychotics
You my dear friend truly understand in the silence you provide
You are more spiritual than some cheap ass wine or stale cracker
You have saved more people from their deadly habits
You, not the sun, are the reason we wake in the morning
You, not our loving children, are we want to encounter first
If you disappeared, our only choice would be suicide
Or worse tea
I would become a tree-hugging hippie to protect you from extinction
And slaughter all the pandas in existence
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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