100 Day Project – Days 67 and 68

DAY 67 (July 16th, 2017)

W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats

The Coming of Wisdom with Time

Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.

DAY 68 (July 17th, 2017)

Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy

I Look into my Glass

I look into my glass,
And view my wasting skin,
And say, ‘Would God it came to pass
My heart had shrunk as thin!’

For then I, undistrest
By hearts grown cold to me,
Could lonely wait my endless rest
With equanimity.

But Time, to make me grieve,
Part steals, lets part abide;
And shakes this fragile frame at eve
With throbbings of noontide.

My Commentary

I’ve combined these two into a single poem

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN TO A MAN

How does this happen to a man—
that he is too crippled to walk?
or that his encrusted mind crumbles into
fractured gibberish?

… but, in truth,
the path is bitterly clear—
I teeter on it now—
with failing eyes and brittle bones
I timidly step and misstep
in a clumsy circularity—
as a baboon dances.

How easy it is to love
with the loss of one’s body.
How fragile it is—like an eggshell.


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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