Chill (Cento)
I shiver a little, with the evening,
and you print a shadow like a thin twig.
Wait for my death, then hear me again.
He believes a pomegranate is a thesaurus,
the thundercloud, tomorrow’s puddle. Is
this hunger unlike that of others?
When a drowning man calls out,
his voice follows him downstream.
Why am I grown so cold?
A cento is composed of lines borrowed from other poets. “Chill” owes its existence to: James Wright, H.D., Ingeborg Bachmann, Eduardo C. Corral, Blaga Dimitrova, Forrest Gander, Yusuf Komunyakaa, and Adelaide Crapsey.
“Chill” first appeared on the blog in March, 2016, and was subsequently published in Long Exposure in October 2016.
O at the Edges 
An interesting concept, I the tradesman, not versed in literature, hadn’t heard of “cento” in poetry before, and you managed to make “Chill” flow very cleverly, thankyou, another thing I’ve learnt today.
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I agree with you ivors20. Thanks for saying it first! 😃
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Haha, never to old to learn. ..
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Very true. I learn a lot from writing – sometimes wondering about a word’s origin will lead me astray for hours!
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I’m still relearning words, haha, I actually sleep with my big dictionary on the bed.
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I can get lost in dictionaries!
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Haha, I’m lost without my dict’. Funny, haha, after my Stroke, 17 years ago, I couldn’t even remember the alphabet, but the relearning of words and language has been an enjoyable challenge
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I hope to avoid that particular challenge, but do enjoy learning new words and their origins.
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Never!
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Haha, and my little dog Lily.
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How could you go wrong, then?
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It’s an interesting, challenging but fun form to work in. Type “cento” in the search field, and you’ll find a few others I’ve posted.
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Thankyou
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You might give the form a go.
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I certainly give it a go
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Keep us posted!
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Would that all humankind believed that a pomegranate is a thesaurus
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Yes! And a watermelon, an atlas.
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While we’re at it, I remember a deliciously haunting line by my poet-friend, Dave Brinks: “death is a pineapple.”
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Sweet! And prickly, at the same time.
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Wow, Robert! That is a big list of inspiration for such a short poem!! (<:
Great poem! Loved the thesaurus in the pomegranate!
Dwight
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Thanks, Dwight. That’s such a wonderful line, isn’t it? Wish I’d thought of it.
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Me too!
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Very very cool! Damn you’re good.
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Thank you. The source poets get all the credit. I merely harvested their lines.
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🙂 it’s an interesting concept. You get credit too!
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It is an interesting form, and I become much more intimate with the source poetry.
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To think up or know someone who believes a pomegranate to be a thesaurus is wild. A stunning line.
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I know!
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Never heard of a cento before, but this is a great poetic form. Well done!
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It is a great form!
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Yes. I might use it myself. I too admire Yusuf Komunyakaa’s abstract style.
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Using the form has made me much more intimate with the source poems – I know them now from a different perspective.
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That’s great. I think best way of improve at something, partcularly poetry, is to replicate the style of poets one admires. I strive to say as much as I can through brevity in work, so poets like Jane Hirshfield are a source of inspiration for me.
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Jane Hirshfield is most definitely one of my favorites. Are you aware of Christina Davis? She also extracts much out of little. I found her via a Jane Hirshfield interview – Jane recommended Davis highly, and I ordered her book Forth a Raven. Remarkable stuff. I’ve posted a “50-word review” of the book on the blog.
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Never heard of Davis, but I will definitely check her out!
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She has two books, both outstanding.
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