Cento poems make
great bedside reading, because cento is Latin for quilt. A cento is a sort of found
poem literally "stitched together": every line is taken from another
poem. It's a very old form, dating back to at least the 4th century, but it
seems custom-made for our hyper-linked age. And it's a great form for D-I-Y
types and renters (and those suffering from chronic
writer's block), because the cento allows you to make something with what
you're given, rather than building a structure from scratch. Selection is
a form of invention. Make lemonade.
Meditation: Cento Poems & On Light
Cento poems make
great bedside reading, because cento is Latin for quilt. A cento is a sort of found
poem literally "stitched together": every line is taken from another
poem. It's a very old form, dating back to at least the 4th century, but it
seems custom-made for our hyper-linked age. And it's a great form for D-I-Y
types and renters (and those suffering from chronic
writer's block), because the cento allows you to make something with what
you're given, rather than building a structure from scratch. Selection is
a form of invention. Make lemonade.
Here's a cento to celebrate our recent "stunning win"--click on each line to be taken to the source text.
Light Reading Always the light recedes; with groping hands light reaches through a leaf, falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground. Light sinks and rusts how all matter dissolves, eventually, into energy: the moon will soon shine further than sunshine could. How long ago the day is. Sometimes a light surprises, a special kind of dark called light, the darkness thinking the light, ordinary light. When the light appears, boy, when the light appears-- how pleasant the yellow butter. Light the first light of evening, as in a room in the flickering candlelight, a window, from which you can see clouds better than people, black pine tree in an orange light. We point at the moon with one finger, and hold it up to the light of night and light and the half-light of other days around me.Shannon Holman, AT Poet Laureate Our remarkable poet laureate, Shannon Holman, is away in Indonesia for a few months of R&R. In the meantime, we'll be revisiting her earliest meditations. This one goes all the way back to February, 2005. Enjoy! (RePublished from Feb 25, 2005)
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Neat! I'd not even heard of that form before (if I'd bothered to go to school I might've LOL) and it's a nice idea.
Had to have my own punt on this - haiku style, as it's late, and dinner's in the oven:
Was light from Heaven
And by the vision splendid
..... Filled one home with glee
All apologies!! (to Burns, Wordsworth & Hemans)
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This reminds me of a poet friend who makes poems out of interesting spam titles he gets in his e-mail box.
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