Cento: A Poetry Experiment

The Cento is an ancient form of poetry collage in which one selects lines from existing poems and cobbles them together to create a whole new poem.

I admit, my poet ego was a tiny bit offended at the idea of writing a poem without any of my own words in it. Plus, after years of anti-plagiarism propaganda pounded into my head by various teachers, it was weird to be handed an assignment actually encouraging me to rip off other writers.

But it was a fun experiment, and all you English geeks out there should give it a go.

Here's what I came up with:

The Meaning of Life (our assigned topic)

A favorite child:
a kid skipping rope
in the sun,
singing out within the passing crash of the sun.

Running out in the snow for the morning paper,
potatoes for breakfast,
ten cents.

Pillowcases and blue jeans,
that red shirt,
that printed dress you had,
those glowing socks.

The same person in two places,
two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

The very rare green deer,
the horses who moaned like oceans,
a kind lion,
flank of a tiger in mid-leap.

The black birds at gravesites,
one black-haired tree
talking in the wind,
a hundred wheels tearing like time.
The words broken bones,
jagged stories of storms—
our common fear.

A diamond blind in the black belly of coal,
how a diamond comes into a knot of flame.

The ongoing drone of a star—
blue-white delight—
sacred and anonymous.
Tidal creeks sweeping out to sea,
this old, beautiful ritual,
a moment so long-drawn-out all time pauses.

Your breath inside its own hollows,
full of vaporous hope.



(Each line comes from a different poem. In order, they are: "The Earth is a Living Thing"-Lucille Clifton, "The Base Stealer"-Robert Francis, "Beer Bottle"-Ted Kooser, "Coal"-Audre Lorde, "The God Who Loves You"-Carl Dennis, "Green Chile"-Jimmy Santiago Baca, "Small Wire"-Anne Sexton, "After Polio"-Scott Hightower, "Power"-Corrine Hales, "On the Table"-Andrew Motion, "Ode to My Socks"-Pablo Neruda/tr. Robert Bly, "Explaining a Husband"-Alberto Ross, "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter-Rihaku/tr. Ezra Pound, "Ode to My Socks" again, "Ice Horses"-Joy Harjo, "Sekhmet, the Lion-headed Goddess of War"-Margaret Atwood, "Green Chile" again, "Relations"-?, "The Starry Night"-Anne Sexton, ?, "Power" again, "Heft"-Richard Jones, "IX, part 6"-Jimmy Santiago Baca, "Theology"-Tara Bray, "The Earth is a Living Thing" again, "Coal" again, "The Deaf Dancing to Rock"-Liesel Mueller, "Silenced"-Tara Bray, "Unholy Sonnet"-Mark Jarman, "If Only"-John Balaban, "Green Chile" again, "The Bay at West Falmouth"-Barbara Howes, "Portrait"-Pattiann Rogers, "The Best Cigarette"-Billy Collins).