Awakened, He Turns to the Wall (Cento)
Then, everything slept.
Where were you before the day?
You see here the influence of inference,
whereby things might be seen in another light,
as if the trees were not indifferent, as if
a hand had suddenly erased a huge
blackboard, only, I thought there was
something even if I call it nothing,
like the river stretching out on its
deathbed. No one jumps off.
* * *
A cento is composed of lines from poems by other poets. This originated from pieces by: Larry Levis, Jacques Roubaud, Lorine Niedecker, Gustaf Sobin, Denise Levertov, Elizabeth Spires, William Bronk, Vicente Huidobro, Ingebord Bachmann
For further information and examples of the form, you might peruse the Academy of American Poets site: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poetic-form-cento
This last appeared here in February 2017.
O at the Edges 
“Cento” something new I learn today. Thanks.
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They are fun and challenging!
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Haunting. Thanks for introducing me to this form through your blog, Bob, and for providing such powerful examples.
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Thanks, Cate. I’d love to assemble more, but have too many oars in the water as it is. But one of these days I’ll binge. After all, I have to put all of these books lying around gathering dust to work!
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This is so cool!!!!!!!!!! And made an awesome poem!
I’ll have to try it out sometime, never heard of it.
Also, I nominated you for the Mystery Blogger Award here: https://fierykaleidoscope.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/838/
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Thanks very much. FYI, I just found your comment in my spam folder. I have no idea why it was there, but thought you should know. Thanks for the nomination, but I’ve elected to not participate in awards – they simply take up too much time, which always seems to be in short supply. But I truly appreciate the sentiment!
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I think I would be jumping.
These are so difficult to do, but yours always flow. (K)
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I would probably roll and fall…
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Definitely a better idea.
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It all depends upon the landing.
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Look before you leap (I’m not very good at that myself…)
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I’m much more likely to just trip and fall.
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I should try it. Thanks.
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You should! It helps to have a lot of books lying around… 🙂
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I haven’t heard of this style of poem before. Its really interesting! and this was so well done. It makes me want to maybe give it a try.
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It’s a wonderful and challenging form. You should try it!
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i will 🙂
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Great! Keep us posted.
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