100 Day Project – Days 59 and 60

DAY 59 (July 8th, 2017)

A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman

With rue my heart is laden

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

DAY 60 (July 9th, 2017)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Break, Break, Break

Break, break, break,
      On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
      The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,
      That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
      That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
      To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
      And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
      At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
      Will never come back to me.

My Commentary

I’ve combined these two into a single poem

I CAUGHT YOU AT SUNSET

I caught you at sunset
after a restful respite.

I looked up and saw you
in the failing sun
that turns all the tall, stone monuments into gold.

And you were as you were
a hundred years before
when I nursed you in my heart
and held your fragile head like an unready mother.


The 100 Day Project

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 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!

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