DAY 25 (June 4th, 2017)
Mid-December, 1926; last entry in last notebook, less than two weeks before his death
Come you, you last one, whom I avow,
wretched pain in the corporeal weaving:
as I burned in spirit, see, I burn now
in you; the wood resisted receiving
for a long time the flame which in you glows,
now I feed you and burn in you as well.
In your rage my native being-mild grows
to a rage not from here but of hell.
Quite pure, quite planlessly free from future I
climbed the tangled funeral pile of pain.
so sure nowhere to buy a future gain
for this heart, in which has grown silent the supply.
Is it still I who burns unrecognizably?
Memories I do not seize inside.
O life. life: being-outside.
And I in flame. No one who knows me.
Renunciation. That is not what illness
once was in childhood. Procrastination. Pretense for
growing bigger. Everything whispered and called.
Do not mix into this what early enthralled.
My Commentary
Write me.
These are your words, not mine.
Arrogant ambitions I’ll harbor not
that prop me on a marble pedestal
and buoy my pride … better to aspire
for freedom from stone and quarry.
DAY 26 (June 5th, 2017)
Magic
From indescribable transformation flash
such creations—: Feel! and trust!
We suffer it often: flames become ash;
yet. in art: flames come from dust.
Here is magic. In the realm of a spell
the common word seems lifted up above …
and yet is really like the call of the male
who calls for the invisible female dove.
August, 1924
My Commentary
This is your moment
It burns like a diamond,
the last on a string of gems,
the crowning jewel
of a diadem.
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 100 Day Project on May 11th. My project is to read a poem, and write at least one first-draft stanza inspired by that poem. I’ll post the results at www.bradseverance.com/category/100-day-project/
Enjoy!