I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each Month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.
From Linda: "This Friday for our First Friday Poetry challenge, we are going to be doing a cento (also called a collage poem). What’s a cento? A cento is a poem that is made up from the lines of other people’s poems. You can choose to borrow lines from one poet or many poets. You can even choose to use lines that do not come from poems. Here’s an example from Ronna Bloom. Make sure that you credit all the people whose poems you are taking lines from."
This was much harder than I expected it to be! I collected fragments of poetry and quotes from books all month long. In the end, I printed these out, cut them into strips and started playing around with them.
Here is what I finally ended up with.
Never get over making everything such a big deal.
The heart is a continuously open wound.
People who simply want to love are instead forced to become warriors.
I do the little each person can do.
It isn’t much.
A poem cannot stop a bullet. a novel can't defuse a bomb. but we are not helpless. we can sing the truth and name the liars.
In a pattern called a war,
Sunlight carries blessing
Wait awhile for love to come out of the darkness.
It's vast and endless and full of unbreakable hope.
Like the setting sun,
love comes quietly.
It’s subtle, takes practice.
It is unspeakable.
It is everlasting.
It is for keeps.
Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them.
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy
give into it.
Dear, these are the things that count.
Here is where each line comes from:
The Last Thing by Ada Limon
Host by Chibueze Crouch-Anyarogbu
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
At the River Clarion by Mary Oliver
Salman Rushdie from speech at at the PEN World Voices Festival.
Patterns by Amy Lowell
Expectancy by William MooreRebel Seoul by Axie Oh
Everyone Sang by Siegried Sassoon
Love Comes Quietly by Robert Creely
Ways to Measure Trees by MaKshya Tolbert
For Keeps by Joy Harjo
2010 Interview with Ray Bradbury in The Paris ReviewDon't Hesitate by Mary Oliver
The Things That Count by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
