Day 35 of The Year Apart (and Sometimes Not)

The boys are back in action! Davis suggested a poem:

"Today's Challenge:

Write a six couplet poem about your day."

Davis wrote this piece:

"An Evening’s Couplets (March 12, 2018)"

I woke up to blowers of leaves and things, a bit peeved and blinking and dry

Took a shower so cold, it left me brazen and bold, facing forward determined and spry

A cortado “for here,” a quick glance at the news, to a meeting, I finally went

With some voice over guys (both warm, funny, and kind), that I hoped, for me, might represent

We drove up to Jasper, pretty much just right after, to see grandmama and grandpappy,

He teetered, she choked, but they laughed when they spoke, very old and yet still very happy

We stumbled through the lines and songs and try to stay on script

The writers come tomorrow and we are scared, but well-equipped

Rehearsal flies like time with wings, despite the songs of praise

The Spanish gospels sung off-key, an intoxicated craze

A day like this deserves reflection, so, at last, we do regroup

While Leeann cooks pasta around 11, and I sit and sip my soup

The bed calls out, and we pray to answer, if not now, then certainly soon

For our eyes are weary and we’ll sleep, in theory, quite well under crescent moon

Charles wrote this piece:

"March Couplets"

Roused reluctantly from a night’s sleep

Drove to work in the forest green Jeep

Worked the day with an unconscious dunce

And somehow failed to thank my lucky stars even once

Took deep breaths in the Hamakua wide open

Clipped ‘em in, zipped ‘em and stayed mostly soft-spoken

Took solace in the stories of a hillbilly named Vance

Recognized my L(if)e had begun with one hell of a chance

Went to the h(om)e of a family most endearing

laughed and loved over plenty of dear meet

Learned all the ways that we grow before birth

Took a deep breath, became on with the E(art)h

Day 32 of The Year Apart (and Sometimes Not)

Davis transitioned to Birmingham where he will be for the next few weeks, so the boys finally got their next challenge going.

Charles sent Davis:

"Today’s Challenge:

Just before you go to bed tonight, set out a cushion and a pen and paper. Sit in meditation for at least 5 minutes.

When it feels right, open your eyes and free write a short poem."

Here's Charles' piece:

Here's Davis' piece:

Day 13 of The Year Apart (and Sometimes Not)

Davis began the week with a beautiful suggestion.

"Today’s Challenge:

Write a sonnet. 14 lines. a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g format.

in iambic pentameter."

Here is Charles' piece:

"The poet sits before his moving screen

And here he types and tries to find the voice

Hidden within the time and rhyming scheme

But stunted by each every approaching choice

To simply put inside the blocks of words

An assembly of similes to convey his talent

Would sacrifice the flow for the absurd

And reveal that skill was something that he’d hadn’t

And yet the bastard spilled across the page

and worked his way into a passioned clip

His early lines he chocked them up to age

He trusted that the point would start to tip

And thus he’d found himself damn near the end

And told himself he’d have to try again"

And here is Davis' piece:

"

I walk and think ‘bout that which I have lost

The innocence and boyhood dreams I’ve known

I’ve grown into a man; and at what cost?

To be mature, and, to be sure, alone

When I was young, my dreams were open skies

Boundless as they boldly twist and turn’d

And now those dreams, I’m told, are distant lies

Isolated by the fear I’ve learned

I must defy the nature of this path

And so, my love, my dreams I cannot scorn

To pierce the shell of crippling terror’s wrath

And live the purpose for which I was born

I pray we crack the many masks of men

And birth anew our purity again