DAY 15 (January 20th, 2018)

Love and all its travails. But this is life is it not?

OLD HAT

It’s almost old hat—
to take what cuts to the quick
and sever a bond of love.
Wounds heal more quickly now—
No doubt I tend to them expertly.

And yet another respite
and again I’m in your arms, old friend—
we’ll talk more deeply than before—
for our bond endures beyond all things—
not in spite of but through our suffering.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAYS 12, 13, and 14 (January 17th, 18th, and 19th, 2018)

These stanzas were inspired by landscape paintings at the IMA.

THE ARTIST’S PURPOSE

The sky is sometimes a confection
of two kinds of clouds—
the artist’s purpose is often unclear.

UNADULTERATED

Can such unadulterated beauty
only exist in paintings?
Sadly, it is true—
there’s nothing left undefiled.

EACH HAS EYES

Each has eyes.
Each has eyes to see.
What of all God’s whims
catches your fancy?

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAYS 10 and 11 (January 15th and 16th, 2018)

This bit of work represents some retooling and expansion of my last post.

WILDFLOWERS

What is this futile little game—
which for words This transcends
for words I search in vain.
But still, I like to play—
It keeps her close.

That was springs ago—
and yet still I gather,
and wait and wonder.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 9 (January 14th, 2018)

WILDFLOWERS

What is this futile little game—
finding words for that which transcends words?
But still, I like to play—
It keeps me close—
like the peasant boy that gathers wildflowers
for the mysterious girl he once saw fields away—
springs ago.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 8 (January 13th, 2018)

THE LAST DAY

What is this? The last day?
On that day you’ll surely wonder—
What is this? The last hour?

And what is this? The last tear shed
for a tiny, tremulous bird
that for flight an undying love
beats in its tiny breast.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 7 (January 12th, 2018)

ANTEROOM

Sunbeams stream
in perfect planes,
cutting polygons in thick shadows
where an old man sits—
a limb may creak and turn
at every half-revelation—
in a dusty anteroom
off the crowded hall—
in a meditative nexus of
sunlight,
silence,
and thought.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 6 (January 11th, 2018)

THIS BUILDING SOMETIMES SLEEPS

This building sometimes sleeps,
sometimes warmly thrums
and one’s dreams get lost
in its monotonic vapor.

And then one hears the crows’ caws–
high-pitched, gravel-throated exaltations–
and out of the savage cleft of
Tiamat’s torn, water-laden corpse
gloriously rises the sun.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 5 (January 10th, 2018)

MUSING

What is this pure ocean heart,
this blue water love,
that piques the nose
like a pink bourbon rose?

Such a one to know!
To unfold, perhaps,
to trace her eyes
with a million tender questions—
and still to know …

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 4 (January 9th, 2018)

TRUE WORDS

True words—
petals plucked from the air
delicately
with pillow-soft fingertips
and a dancer’s alabaster wrist
bent just so—
yielding—
like a forlorn lover’s kiss

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!

DAY 3 (January 8th, 2018)

from LETTERS ON CEZANNE

You also notice, a little more clearly each time, how necessary it was to go beyond love, too; it’s natural, after all, to love each of these things as one makes it: but if one shows this, one makes it less well; one judges it instead of saying it. One ceases to be impartial; and the best—love—stays outside the work, does not enter it, is left aside, untranslated …

The love is so thoroughly used up in the action of making that there is no residue.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

You may buy this book here: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-C%C3%A9zanne-Rainer-Maria-Rilke/dp/086547639X

TO SEE A THING

To see a thing
as it is
unembellished with
one’s imaginings—
a moment remembered—
it lives forever
and breathes in a dimension beyond one’s own.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a creativity excavation. It’s about unearthing dormant or unrealized creativity by committing to a daily practice everyday for 100 days.
Creativity is a skill. The more we practice, the more skilled we become. Practice takes time. Practice takes commitment. Practice is a radical act in this speeded up world. Through practice, we develop a creative habit. Through habit, we reconnect with and know ourselves again as a creative being.

I started this, my third, 100 Day Project on January 6th. My project is to write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by a poem, a quote, an idea, a painting—anything really. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project-number-three/

Enjoy!