DAY 29 (June 8th, 2017)
From the Book of Hours
Our hands shake as we try to construct you,
block on block.
But you, cathedral we dimly perceive—
who can bring you to completion?
What’s Rome? It crumbled?
What is the world? We are destroying it
before your towers can taper into spires,
before we can assemble your face
from piles of mosaic.
Yet sometimes in dreams
I take in your whole expanse,
from its deepest beginnings
up to the rooftop’s glittering ridge.
And then I see: it is my mind
that will fashion
and set the last pieces in place.
My Commentary
What is a font of marble and silver to you?
Or an apse gilded in gold mosaics?
Or stone towers wreathed in clouds?
Do you forgive man for his feeble desire
to make you a corporeal home?
Is it not better to breath your majesty
in the eastern wind?
Or to swim in your calm, warm waters?
DAY 30 (June 9th, 2017)
From the Book of Hours
Because once someone dared
to want you,
I know that we too, may want you.
When gold is in the mountain
and we’ve ravaged the depths
til we’ve given up digging,
it will be brought forth into day
by the river that mines
the silences of stone.
Even when we don’t desire it,
God is ripening.
My Commentary
You are always in front of us.
If we would but wish it,
you could not hide from us
and you would take our hands
and walk with us together
like old friends.
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!