This week's Poetry Roundup is hosted by Tanita S. Davis.
Kim Johnson is featuring a living poet each day in March for Slice of Life and using existing lines from the poet's poems to create a Cento. The Cento, from the Latin word for “patchwork,” is a poetic form composed entirely of lines from poems by other poets. You can read more about Kim's process for using this in the classroom here.
I decided to play with lines from a favorite children's anthology, Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard to create today's Cento.
Poetry Fields
My friends the words
What secrets are they holding?
Moon breathes,
listen for the right rhythm.
Light the moon at night,
then dance a poem.
Dream!
Lines taken from these poems in Falling Down the Page:
1. "Words in My Pillow' by Naomi Shihab Nye
2. "Are We There Yet?" by Heidi Roemer
3. "Message from the Moon" by Lara Anderson
4. "Things to Do If You Are a Pencil "by Elaine Magliaro
5. "Things to Do if You Are the Sun" by Bobbi Katz
6. "Things to Do If You Are a Pencil" by Elaine Magliaro
7. "Things to Do Today" by Liz Rosenberg
Diane (newtreemom)
ReplyDeleteYou found just the right lines. I love “dance a poem”!
The lines work so well together -- both in sound, and in how they look physically. There is an etheral quality that I enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the line choices in your cento, especially those from “Things To Do If You Are a Pencil.” I tried on some “saffron and cedar” perfume not long ago, and my son said, “That smells great if your goal is to smell like a pencil box.” Maybe that is my goal!
ReplyDeleteI like relationship expressed in your first two lines: words as my friends, holding secrets. I think that would be a great lead into a short story.
ReplyDeleteDance a poem! Love!
ReplyDelete