Day 27: Inspiration from Gil Scott-Heron (National Poetry Month)

We made it to Day 27 of National Poetry Month and NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month).

Here’s inspiration from the revolutionary Gil Scott-Heron:

Today’s Quote

“A good poet feels what his community feels.”

Gil Scott-Heron

“Where Did The Night Go” by Gil-Scott Heron

You’ll know his name from the well-known “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” I’m in love with the more recent “Where Did The Night Go.” I see it as the future place where poetry must dare to go…visionary, going beyond the text, beyond spoken word, beyond singing–just, poetry.

Books by Gil Scot-Heron

typewriterpoetry.com 💚 Day 27, Poem 27: "A good poet feels what his community feels." Gil Scott-Heron # 🙋🏽🙇🏼 Tag @typewriterpoetry and #typewriterpoetry on your poems to be featured for today's #NationalPoetryMonth 💖 #typewriter #poetry #poem #npm16 #npm2016 #quote #quotes #quoteoftheday #quotestoliveby #inspiration #inspirational #inspirationalquotes #writing #writer #gilscottheron #spokenword #art #artsy #artistic #words #wordporn #inspire #passion #beautiful #love #poet #igwriters #igpoets

A post shared by Typewriter Poetry (@typewriterpoetry) on Apr 27, 2016 at 8:25am PDT

Poem A Day

the Typewriter Poetry edition

All of April, we’re sharing Typewriter Poetry made by poets around the world for National Poetry Month. If you’d like to be featured, submit your typewritten poem-a-day by tagging #typewriterpoetry & @typewriterpoetry on Instagram.

Day 27, Poem 27

The poem-a-day gallery continues to grow! Take a peak at the Daily Typewriter Poetry post to read featured typewriter poetry.

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National Poetry Month Writing Quotes

Here’s a selection of all the #NaPoWriMo inspirational writing quotes.

: Walt Whitman
“To have great poets, there must be great audiences.”

: Saul Williams
“More people than ever are slowly but surely turning their ears toward poetry.”

: Lucille Clifton
“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.”

: John Fowles
“We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.”

: Joy Harjo
“Poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won’t work.”

: Li-Young Lee
“When you write poetry, you sit inside the burning bush.”

: Maya Angelou
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

: Naomi Shihab Nye
“All of us think in poems.”

: Jessica Hagedorn
“Scavenge from the best.”

: Gary Snyder
“Our elders are books.”

: Roberto Bolano
“Only poetry isn’t shit.”

: Mary Ruefle
“Words have a love for each other, a desire that culminates in poetry.”

: Sylvia Plath
“Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.”

: Yukio Mishima
“Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.”

: W. Somerset Maugham
“The crown of literature is poetry.”

: Jean Cocteau
“Poetry is indispensable–if only I knew what for.”

: Audre Lorde
“When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn’t matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.”

: Adrienne Rich
“The moment of change is the only poem.”

: Oscar Wilde
“He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.”

: T.S. Eliot
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

: Kurt Vonnegut
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.”

: Amiri Baraka
“Poems are bullshit unless they are teeth or trees or lemons piled on a street.”

: Leonard Cohen
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”

Support Typewriter Poetry

Like what Typewriter Poetry is doing? There are quite a few creative and interesting ways to support us, like buying your next book from our Collaborative Wishlist:

Purchase your Amazon books through Typewriter Poetry

You’ll notice this post features affiliate links from Amazon. That means any time you click a link then order an item, Typewriter Proceed receives a small cut from your order. Be sure to use our links to treat yourself to a literary treat! You’ll be building the Typewriter Poetry community and feeding your personal library.

Donate to Tupelo Press

For 2016’s #NationalPoetryMonth, I’m fundraising on behalf of Tupelo Press, a small literary publisher. Tupelo’s 30/30 Project is an all-year monthly round of writing a poem a day. Check out their website. You can read the collection of poetry I volunteered to write for the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project. I also encourage you to donate in my name to Tupelo Press. 100% of proceeds go to their literary press, it’s tax-deductible, and you’ll be a patron of the arts!

suck myself out the heart i give it back

Enjoying the work I’ve been steadily producing for National Poetry Month? It’s for my upcoming art book, suck myself out the heart i give it back. You can watch my artistic process unfold at blog.billimarie.com.

Typewriter Poetry