“I have demons,” he told me once. “They make me do and say things. Hurt people.” I mentioned this to my friend Sam when I stopped by his office one afternoon. Though Sam was master of many fields, the sign on the door said “Travel Agent”. “Has he hurt you?” “He has tried.” I smiled. “If he’s got demons, I don’t think they’re very good ones.” Sam brought me a cup of coffee and closed the shop. “He doesn’t have demons,” he said. “Demons are very busy, you know, they don’t ha

Yet if any man who has received the gift of poetic fervor shall imperfectly fulfill its function here described, he is not, in my opinion, a praiseworthy poet. For, however deeply the poetic impulse stirs the mind to which it is granted, it very rarely accomplishes anything commendable if the instruments by which its concepts are to be given shape are deficient. -- Boccaccio, Giovanni. Genealogy of the Gentile Gods, Book IV, Chapter VII: “The Definition of Poetry, Its Origin,

Topic 05: Write a poem inspired by a historical figure or event. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Ada A woman's heart is not kept in her breast -- a child takes many forms within the mind and is not by its parentage defined. My father was a poet; to protest Mama ensured I was not so inclined. A woman's heart is not kept in her breast; a child takes many forms within the mind. To science, not to sonnets, I was pressed. In formulas and numbers I would

Topic 04: Write a poem inspired by a mirror, reflecting surface, or a reflection. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Sleep of Narcissus The mirror does not reflect you, but shows you what silvered eyes see, if only you care to look through. The sky is a cauldron of blue, that doesn’t know what else to be: the mirror does not reflect you. Look sideways, a new point of view -- the outside of you inside me, if only you care to look through. Take one an

Topic 03: Write a poem inspired by a favorite cartoon or cartoon character. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more The Ghost Who Walks The best lies are the truths no-one believes; that you were just a man, like your father and his, back as far as a purple suit could stretch. That the eyes in the skull were just holes in a mountain, caves that you filled with your family. And that the quest for revenge will keep you alive. #NaPM2017 #poetry #ThePhantom

Topic 02: Write a poem inspired by a hard truth (something true that people often don't like to admit). Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more The Fallen Muse The Queen of Hearts, they called her. Headlines wrote themselves; the tabloid papers would devote at least an inch each morning to her shoes and made of her a goddess. Should their muse walk down a street, she had "the common touch", although she didn't touch the poor too much unless a camera waited. Sh