Week Six
Monday, October 16th – Sunday, October 22nd
It’s been three weeks since I was able to get some poems out of me, but I had finished my novel commitment a bit early this week, and so I had some time to work on poetry this weekend.
So, without further ado, here are my poems for Week Six:
WITHOUT YOU
The light from the copper-red moon—
Your blood-drunk mother moon—
penetrates your vile eyes
and in them I see a rabid dog
yellow at the tooth with violence and decay.
Not upon me do the maggots feed,
but you, my bastard brother,
lame in the leg and black in the eye.
You once laughed and lived
and fancied yourself out of God’s reach.
It matters not.
You were never counted one among the angels.
Where are your wings? Such airs for flight!
You’re doubled over, under the weight
of a rucksack full of broken clayware,
your back curved like a bow,
the adamantine string around your neck
pulled taut from below
by a mustachioed, mephistophelian marionettist
buried in the sodden, so-called sacred earth.
I press my thumbs against your bony skull
and imagine it tossed in a pile,
a pock-marked pyramid,
of men long dead.
And yet what am I without you?
Perhaps just a wisp of tumultuous,
evanescent time.
I AM THE LITTLE LIFE
I am the little life
My thoughts are sometimes long.
And on my skin and in my bones,
are quiet little reckonings.
I am the little life
And I am sometimes whole.
Today I was a cloud.
Tommorrow—an eternity.
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 (my second one) on September 11th. Each week, I will write at least five hundred words of my novel. These words don’t necessarily have to be a polished product, but should, at least, be coherent and grammatically sound. I’ll also post two poems a week. These poems will be a bit more polished than first drafts. Most of the material will come from poetry that I wrote in my first 100 day project. In addition to writing the poems, I’m also going to read them, so that you may hear how they sound in my head. I’ve been told I have a pleasant voice, so I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Lastly, I’ll create one blog post where I read a famous poem written by a real poet! I will also include a little history and fun facts about the poet.