Poetry

Notebook Cento #3

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages. This is the third of the series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #3
by Debi

distance ———- home
love is in the mind
happens again and again
there are known unknowns
and unknown knowns
everyone lives parenthetically
do you have to work for it?
how much do you want it?
layers of imagery
presentation
representation
is any poem with footnotes
a mixed genre work?

Erasure: gods

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Erasure poem – sourced from Clouds by Aristophones
by Debi

gods

we commanded
then declared
dreadful things openly
an evening
beautiful
a torch the moonlight
but observe correctly
confuse the gods
threatening
when they are defrauded
the regular feast
the number of days
sacrificing
inflicting
gods are litigating
laughing
reason obtained afterward
deprived
gods
know better
to spend the days
according to the Moon

Notebook Cento #2

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages.   This is the second of a series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #2
by Debi

justify the story
what will serve you
formal constraints
dialogue
punctum
multi-faceted narrative
help us
guide us

fiction’s fuckin’ gone
facing the end
walk off the grief
behind the tear duct

Notebook Cento #1

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages.  Yes, I create found poetry from my own personal notes.  Yes, I’m that obsessed with phrases.  Yes, I’m that crazy about writing centos.  🙂  This is the first of what will probably be a short series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #1
by Debi

metaphysical sonnet
part of a new style
context embedded within
the poem keeps  moving
walking                 pacing
within the creative work
practical           theoretical
just keeps            moving
think about this
formal                   analytical
there is     real     meaning
whether we know it      or not
Basho        keeps        moving
Dante     ruminates

Continue the cento series here: Notebook Cento #2

Conformed

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I’m currently working on an erasure poem of an entire book.  Is there such a thing as an epic erasure?  That seems to better describe this undertaking.

Here’s a brief sample of a small part of one of the poems I found hiding in the text of the book I’m erasing.

UPDATE!  The book is now in print!  BAD THINGS HAPPEN: an erasure.

Confoconform-1rmed

it is easy
to become conformed
all things
are working
in all things
to conform you
Stop
right now

Poems: Found poetry from “Down”

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51UpSd5xOiLThe following is a selection of found poetry from Down, a book of found poetry by Sarah Dowling. Dowling’s found poems into my found poems. It’s a bit organic.

The constraint I used was to find repeated phrasing, and then make a list of those phrases. The phrases are in the order I found them, more or less. Not the greatest poetry, but it was fun to do.

I’ve been finding whenever I read anything these days, I end up jotting down notes and looking for potential centos, found poems, etc. I think I’ve become a phrase addict.

by Debi

1

if I can’t
if I’m not
if I can’t tell
if you tell
I’m not but
you can’t tell me
I’m not but
you shouldn’t but
if I promise
if I let you go

2

it’s by
it’s cold
it’s cold outside
it’s linked
it’s the trembling
it’s cold
it’s linked
it’s the trembling cold outside

3

what could make
what could make me
make me feel
make me better
make me we
what could make
what could make me
make me us
make me matter
make me one
what could make
what could make me
make me feel

4

I don’t need
I don’t need to
I don’t need no
I don’t need us
I don’t need any
I don’t need

5

feel this
feel anything
feel we
feel this one
feel this expressed
feel this in the way
feel this
feel us

6

these days (days)
see tears (tears)
secret place (place)
my prey (prey)
for days (days)
to prey (prey)

7

I’ve got this
I’ve got serenity
I’ve got existence
I’ve got disarray
I’ve got sunshine
I’ve got attention
I’ve got a relationship
I’ve got the same
I’ve got by
I’ve got us
I’ve got so much
I’ve got a person
I’ve got excesses
I’ve got a thing
I’ve got that

8

I may
I must
I guess
I guess
I guess and expressed
I guess we
I guess between
you’d say very
I guess each
you’d say this
I guess any
you’d say not
I guess histories
you’d say never
I guess
I guess very
I guess disorientation

Collage Poem: Kingdom of Stone

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I’ve been playing around a bit with collage and poetry combined together.

This is a sample of one of my latest experiments.  It’s a rather fun way to play with words and images.  I highly recommend it.  A bit therapeutic, too.

IMG_2208 (5)

Poem: Our land

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wildfire_t670

the fire burned
burnt burns still burning

meanwhile

memories

vanish vanishes still vanishing
in the ash, in the dust

our view now charcoal

(should we use charcoal to draw landscapes?)

the firestorm
eaten eats still eating:

dreams
hopes
loves
lives
forests
fauna

can we ever
own

the land? hills? meadows? trees? creek?

the wildfire
sparked sparks still sparking

and
then

and then

i  t  ’  s

g  o  n   e

Poem: A Lover

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Cento (collage poem)
Source Text: Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am a lover

of uncontained and immortal beauty.

I expand

and live in the warm day

like corn and melons.

The active enchantment

reaches my dust.

All parts of nature conspire.

They nod to me, and I to them.

In the woods, a perpetual youth

is new to me and old.

A wild delight runs through

the best moments of life.

Poem: The Game is to Listen

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Cento (collage poem)
Source Text: The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson

the game is to listen
becoming receptive to what lies around you
sound that is felt almost more than heard
the fairy chiming comes
tiny wisps of sound
so ethereal, so delicate, so otherworldly

in the dawn chorus one hears the throb of life itself
the voices of living things
rhythmic and insistent
so fresh and alive
the sound of the insect orchestra
the wild medley of voices
the repeated refrains of nature

a monotonous night chant
swells and throbs night after night
from darkness to darkness
the chorus picks up volume
listen to the wind
the song of the wind
the insistent wind
it blows with majestic voice
a many-voiced chorus

the majestic sound of thunder, the winds,
the sound of surf or flowing streams
the vast roaring ocean
a fierce rhythm
recognition of something
beyond the boundaries of human existence
where great and elemental things prevailed