Covenant Explore membership participant Ed Seymour writes poems on the spot. Ed desribes it here: “My skill is really taking an exchange and converting to a poem. This dates back to my mom. Each day she was alive she wrote two to three poems and handed them out to people she met. I am simply carrying on family tradition of echphrasis, responding to one art form with another in the moment.”
The following are two of Ed’s poems. The first is his response to the first day of Covenant’s new members class. In the second, Ed uses his poetry to tell the story of how he got into writing poems.
Doors Appeared
Today
As we embarked
on this journey
Today
In the past
Walls stood firm
seemed solid
Then
As we rounded
a bend
The same wall
upon closer inpsection
Became a door
Here
As this exchange
Has begun
Poems on the Spot, by Explore Membership participant Ed Seymour, 2-3-19
Life
As we see, daily
Engages us
Conjures images
Often including
Textures
Bits of sound
Which collectively create the moment
In the practice of
Eckphrastic poetry
I offer the image to others
Snapped in the moment
Which
Often results in
“This captures what I felt
Or wanted to convey “
Most of the time
The recipient states
It is a first
Which is a wonder to me
Seemingly
A delight
To
Them
Mom
Before me
Upheld this
Tradition
Many a folk singer
Renders things
Similar
In several ways
The words
Simply appear
And pen touches
Paper
Poems on the Spot, by Explore Membership participant Ed Seymour, 2-6-19
