April is National Poetry Month, and today on Ethical ELA, VerseLove begins. Jennifer Guyor Jowett kicks off the daily poetry-writing with this invitation:
As poets, we are noticers of words and verses. They catch our attention. They resonate. They allow us to breathe. They sing in a world stuck in B flat…Find verses that you love, that speak to you. Collect them in a pile or a list. Shuffle them into a new poem.
A poem of completely borrowed lines is known as a “cento,'” Latin for “patchwork.”
Here’s my collection:
Lightgathering
A certain light does a certain thing
as the bird wings and sings.
I saw color and I saw a story. I saw a face
and I knew a lifetime
as each separate dying ember wrought its ghost
upon the floor.
Come to me…the light is fading;
don’t you see the evening star appearing?
Enough of pointing to the world,
weary and desperate.
Love that well which thou must leave ere long
for love is as strong as death.
*******
- Ada Limón, “The End of Poetry”
- Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra”
- Ntozake Shange, Riding the Moon in Texas: Word Paintings
- “
- Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
- “
- Lyrics, ”Fantine’s Death,” Les Misérables, Hathaway & Jackman
- “
- Ada Limón, “The End of Poetry”
- “
- Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
- Song of Solomon 8:6
*******
with thanks also, and again, to Two Writing Teachers…today is Slice of Life Tuesday,
right on the heels of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge!
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lit bits and pieces 
This is a clever idea for a poem and a meaningful practice of poetic observation and collecting. The patchwork poem you’ve woven together from these borrowed lines is really powerful.
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Thanks, Elisabeth – at first I despaired, thinking this cento was going to take awhile to compose, but honestly it came together quickly. One of those things that, if you just start, it comes.
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Fran, this takes found poetry to a new level. These lines work so well together. This is something I might have to try sometime.
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You should definitely give it a try, Bob – would love to see what comes!
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Fran, this is beautiful. I love the title most of all. And those last four lines give me hope and comfort in these times and in my stage of life. I think it is a masterful composition.
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Thank you, Denise. At first I thought this “poem collection” would take while and be so laborious – I was surprised to find it coming together quickly. The arranging was fun – like a puzzle. I’m so pleased that you love the title and that the last lines speak to you at this point in life… they do to me, too. Loving well is most important.
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Fran, this is next level. A phenomenal found poem. Favorite verses-
“A certain light does a certain thing
as the bird wings and sings.
I saw color and I saw a story. I saw a face
and I knew a lifetime”
Beautiful!
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I love this and love that there is a credit key. At the same time, there was something really compelling about reading it the first time not knowing that you were going to give us that key. I was reaching to recall if I knew those lines, where they were first written and in what context. It was tantalizing. I only recognized The Raven and the Les Mis line. Now I’m wondering if I can try this myself. I was thinking of doing it with song lyrics.
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