Happy New Year!

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Today not only marks the start of the new year for me, but the birth of The Everyday Poet. I love poetry, but to be clear, I am no expert. My sum total education regarding poetry includes a handful of English courses and two creative writing classes, one undergrad and the other graduate level. I have have been published in Texas’s Best Emerging Poets and in America’s Best Emerging Poets, which is both encouraging and inspiring, but hardly makes me an expert. Which is really the point of this challenge.

Malcolm Gladwell has asserted that to become a virtuoso at something, one needs to apply 10,000 hours worth of practice. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of time. What I can do, however, is write a poem every day for a year. They won’t all be good. Many will need a lot of work before they’re worth being shown. But THIS is my challenge. One year, one poem a day, written by an everyday poet.

That’s in part the purpose of this blog. To first, hold me accountable to my challenge. But also to share the journey and the creation with you. Poetry pleads for reading, it yearns for it the way art craves a viewer and is purposeless without.

Now, I’m not always going to share the poem of the day here. To ensure, however, that you receive at least 365 poems, I have built up a small stock, one which I will continue to add to, as I will occasionally write more than one poem a day. This is to make certain that if I slip, you have something to read and that if I write a poem that really shouldn’t be shared (because I am more than capable or writing complete and utter garbage) that you won’t be forced to endure it.

I will tally my writing here and share that which has been made ready for you regularly. At least 365 poems over the course of this year. Ideally one released every day, though what may end up happening is a collection released weekly. I’ve never managed a blog like this before so we’ll have to find out. Additionally, I should have content for both the newsletter and the podcast soon so you can have the poetry delivered straight to you or listen to myself (or someone else) reading it. The podcast will also be discussing poetry in general between myself and a fellow non-expert.

All of this to say, welcome to The Everyday Poet. I hope you enjoy your stay. Here is your POEM OF THE DAY!

 

The Sun Rises on a Word

The sun rises on a word

bringing it into the light

bringing it form.

A new day marking

the birth of an idea.

A luminescent inception,

one of infinite countless many

tossed aside like pennies

not even worth their

minted copper.

This idea has form.

This idea has been brought to light.

To life.

This idea has a word.

And the word is

a decision, one made

by the inceptor who

wields the power to

make something more.

Something new beyond

Belief. Believe.

Passion. Power. Purpose.

The fuel behind the light

the form and the word

that will become words

when fed and nurtured —

Empowered. Become empowered.

The sun rises on a word.

Today’s word is….