Secret of the Cento

[annaswirls]

I confess. I am intimidated by the Cento.


Did you see this one? First Time
by NorthernPA4U©

Dang! He used 23 different poets!!!! How did he do that???


I saw some others, Depths of Pain
by Safe_Bet©
used different lines all from one poet, which would have its own challenges... and the poem came out so well!


I am not sure how many different poets were lifted in this one: A 'stolen' Cento
by UnderYourSpell© Tell us a story about this poem, UYS. What was your inspiration?


Poets' Dance
by champagne1982© is quite lovely, coherent. I want to know how you did it!


Curious Cento
by Jack_Samuel© Mr. Samuel makes this look easy, but I know it wasn't.


Here are some questions for you, please:

How long did it take you to sift through the poems to find just the right line?

Did you have a theme in mind and then find lines to write it?

Did you let the lines you like decide the direction?


Please post your Cento Challenges and Secrets here. Tell a Cento Story.

How did you start?

Did you have a lot of lines and mixed them up into a sensible poem?

Do tell, do tell.

I am partly afraid of fracking up someone's poem.

Did you go to poems you remember liking?

Did you search poets you enjoy or seem to share your voice?

What worked?

What didn't work?

Will there be a quiz?

 

[annaswirls]

and damnit, Denis only has 2 poems left on Lit???

 

[Angeline]

Didn't know about Denis pulling his poems off. Well, I hope it means he's publishing them elsewhere.

I did the speech cento, not the other one yet. When I write them (I've written a few in the past), I come up with a basic idea of what I want to say and then start reading poets I like, who I know will produce interesting lines for me to combine. And then I just do it. I pick lines and usually about halfway into it, I realize I'm writing about something very different from what I started out thinking it was going to be. And since that is what usually happens when I'm writing my own lines, too, lol I just do it and trust my subconscious to lead me in the right direction. And mostly, I think it does.

 

[Epmd607]

I've never written a cento but I have an easy way out. There are plenty of websites where you can search a word and find every line it appears in shakey. So if you have an idea for a poem you can line up a group of words to direct you then search each word to find the little bit of "for four lagging winters and wanton springs" you need to fit in each space. Something like:

Reek
Worship
Villany
etc.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I honestly can't remember I think I went to the list of poetry and chose titles that I thought might have something in them to fit and struck lucky very quickly. I Can't remember who they are all by either think there is one line from Misstrust and another from Ange or may have possibly have been Tess but there's definitely one from (dare I admit it!!) Senna!

 

[champagne1982]

I went to the Survivor score thread and began to read the poets who were participating in the challenge. I limited my reading with some of the truly prolific poets to ones with (gasp) the dreaded H, E or W as gifted by Lit, others were easy to read since their submissions' list was short or their poems were.

The first line I selected was "sheer lace for lover gone" and then "silver chain around your breast". The theme was being dressed in skin and whatever leftover acoutrements may remain after a very hasty tumble. The other lines were selected because I do, fortunately, have an excellent recall for things read. I can't call it a photographic memory but it's definitely visual in nature. For instance, I'll remember your face but really, don't expect me to put a name to it unless I'm really concentrating on knowing it.

This speech thing is giving me grief though. I can't say as I've ever been inspired by an orator to turn his/her words into poetry, especially since many speeches are written by someone else for a performance by the giver. I'd as soon write a cento from Shakespeare's soliloquys as regurgitate what a pack of politicians have to say about their own or their nation's particular circumstance. I guess if I win immunity again, that's the one I'll pick next.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I went to the Survivor score thread and began to read the poets who were participating in the challenge. I limited my reading with some of the truly prolific poets to ones with (gasp) the dreaded H, E or W as gifted by Lit, others were easy to read since their submissions' list was short or their poems were.

The first line I selected was "sheer lace for lover gone" and then "silver chain around your breast". The theme was being dressed in skin and whatever leftover acoutrements may remain after a very hasty tumble. The other lines were selected because I do, fortunately, have an excellent recall for things read. I can't call it a photographic memory but it's definitely visual in nature. For instance, I'll remember your face but really, don't expect me to put a name to it unless I'm really concentrating on knowing it.

This speech thing is giving me grief though. I can't say as I've ever been inspired by an orator to turn his/her words into poetry, especially since many speeches are written by someone else for a performance by the giver. I'd as soon write a cento from Shakespeare's soliloquys as regurgitate what a pack of politicians have to say about their own or their nation's particular circumstance. I guess if I win immunity again, that's the one I'll pick next.

I did a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill for that one and felt very patriotic! he patted Ron on the head you know ....

 

[annaswirls]

Didn't know about Denis pulling his poems off. Well, I hope it means he's publishing them elsewhere.

I did the speech cento, not the other one yet. When I write them (I've written a few in the past), I come up with a basic idea of what I want to say and then start reading poets I like, who I know will produce interesting lines for me to combine. And then I just do it. I pick lines and usually about halfway into it, I realize I'm writing about something very different from what I started out thinking it was going to be. And since that is what usually happens when I'm writing my own lines, too, lol I just do it and trust my subconscious to lead me in the right direction. And mostly, I think it does.

Yeah, I bet that would happen with me too, it does when I am writing as well. Trick is getting started. To write a cento or to take a nap.....cento......nap.....

 

[annaswirls]

I've never written a cento but I have an easy way out. There are plenty of websites where you can search a word and find every line it appears in shakey. So if you have an idea for a poem you can line up a group of words to direct you then search each word to find the little bit of "for four lagging winters and wanton springs" you need to fit in each space. Something like:

Reek
Worship
Villany
etc.

ah, not a bad idea! I am not really looking for an easy way out, I do not mind working hard on a poem, as long as it is productive work. My fear is greater, as always, than the challenge. Thanks though! I might just give this a try! I could do that on the Search Poems function at Lit.

Search:
wheelbarrows
hickory nuts
squirrels

 

[annaswirls]

I honestly can't remember I think I went to the list of poetry and chose titles that I thought might have something in them to fit and struck lucky very quickly. I Can't remember who they are all by either think there is one line from Misstrust and another from Ange or may have possibly have been Tess but there's definitely one from (dare I admit it!!) Senna!

Ah titles! That is a really good idea! You crack me up that you did not write down whose titles they are!

That might be a fun challenge to do-- write a poem made entirely of titles at Literotica. Lauren? Maybe one of the monthly challenges?

 

[annaswirls]

Thanks for the tips and story champ. Yours really was well formed, coherant, felt like a real poem.

For the speech one, I have three suggestions for you.

1. Stay away from Politicians.

2. Try Commencement Addresses (like that one the guy who was dying did for his sons?) You can find good ones by Vonegut I bet. I saw John Irving give a commencement address at Lehigh. It was awesome. Maya Angelou has given some doozies too. Pinsky has one here. ""They are not powerless, the dead.""

3. Try religious figures. Not necessarily a specifically religious theme, but on a social issue? Something inspirational, perhaps non-secular? I often wrote poems after our minister gave a particularly moving sermon. I did my speech cento on Unitarian Universalist speeches/sermons.





3.

I went to the Survivor score thread and began to read the poets who were participating in the challenge. I limited my reading with some of the truly prolific poets to ones with (gasp) the dreaded H, E or W as gifted by Lit, others were easy to read since their submissions' list was short or their poems were.

The first line I selected was "sheer lace for lover gone" and then "silver chain around your breast". The theme was being dressed in skin and whatever leftover acoutrements may remain after a very hasty tumble. The other lines were selected because I do, fortunately, have an excellent recall for things read. I can't call it a photographic memory but it's definitely visual in nature. For instance, I'll remember your face but really, don't expect me to put a name to it unless I'm really concentrating on knowing it.

This speech thing is giving me grief though. I can't say as I've ever been inspired by an orator to turn his/her words into poetry, especially since many speeches are written by someone else for a performance by the giver. I'd as soon write a cento from Shakespeare's soliloquys as regurgitate what a pack of politicians have to say about their own or their nation's particular circumstance. I guess if I win immunity again, that's the one I'll pick next.

 

[Angeline]

ah, not a bad idea! I am not really looking for an easy way out, I do not mind working hard on a poem, as long as it is productive work. My fear is greater, as always, than the challenge. Thanks though! I might just give this a try! I could do that on the Search Poems function at Lit.

Search:
wheelbarrows
hickory nuts
squirrels

You could use a line from Squirrels Playing Saxophones. I once asked sp what he thought his best love poem is, and that was his answer. Squirrels Playing Saxophones. Lol.

 

[Safe_Bet]

Pssst. Anna... over here...

Wanna know the secret to a good Cento? Got twenty bucks?

HEY! No reason to get rude!

Well, okay then, if you want to be THAT way about it, I'll tell ya...

Find a poet that you really admire and who has a variety of poems in their portfolio. Then read each of them and copy your favorite line from each poem and paste them into a word doc. If you are luck like I was (mostly by picking LadyS whose stuff ROCKS) certain lines will jump out at you and then you can "glue" them together with other lines that you copied. Easy peasy, girl! (don't know why the same thing wouldn't work with lines from a variety of poets, but I LOVE LadyS' work, so that made it even more special for me).

 

[Senna Jawa]

write a poem made entirely of titles at Literotica.

I've done it in the past. Here on Literotica at least once, but I seem to remember that twice.

In the early days of rap (perhaps in 1990, or 1991) I egreped on rap archives... (later, I need to run!)

Regards,

 

[Maria2394]

<<<~~~~ thumbing thru thread, looking for secrets...sorely disappointed...

will return

 

[Jack_Samuel]

when i made mine i started with a feeling i wanted to compose.

And i just read poem after poem until i had a few that i thought captured that feeling.

Then i looked into each one to find what they had in common and whammo it wrote itself

 

[Angeline]

<<<~~~~ thumbing thru thread, looking for secrets...sorely disappointed...

will return

Hey, sweet sis.

It was easy once I got rolling.


First dues for the body poetica:
undo the lettuce leaves from their heart,
fantasies or memories
and miles into never minds.
Picking them up, I

reach out and cradle your
cityscapes and biospheres,
emitting profane levels of profundity.
I don’t want to be
witlessly ignorant of my mood (but)

I am a poet, therefore I lie
by the blood of man, knowing
the blank page denied
my trip to the moon; it’s been postponed.
It’s hard work keeping spirits up.

I send prayers into the evening sky,
some more valuable than others.
Eyes closed, I fall back
in the soft murmur of foliage
over the edge, drowning.

Line Citations
1 First Reading at Café No by jd4george
2 Tonight I'm Sarcastic by Epmd607
3 Whispers by Syndra Lynn
4 Talk to the Heat by The Mutt
5 In the Attic by Remec
6 There is always a trigger by Minervous
7 Another Pickup Line by Icingsugar
8 it’s not what you know by normal jean
9 uncomfortable silence by neonurotic
10 Perhaps Not Your Touch by Average Gina
11 Irren by Kaishaku
12 Beyond Zero by bluerains
13 Reluctant Muse with Attitude by Bill Dada
14 Waiting Room by Cordelia
15 Ashtray by Lalique by darkmaas
16 Falling Stars by Champagne1982
17 Disposing of Little Men by Wespeak
18 Five Wagons of Hickory Nuts by Annaswirls
19 Beethovenhous by Lauren Hynde
20 Dogwood by smithpeter

 

[Tzara]

Hey, sweet sis.

It was easy once I got rolling.


First dues for the body poetica:
undo the lettuce leaves from their heart,
fantasies or memories
and miles into never minds.
Picking them up, I

reach out and cradle your
cityscapes and biospheres,
emitting profane levels of profundity.
I don’t want to be
witlessly ignorant of my mood (but)

I am a poet, therefore I lie
by the blood of man, knowing
the blank page denied
my trip to the moon; it’s been postponed.
It’s hard work keeping spirits up.

I send prayers into the evening sky,
some more valuable than others.
Eyes closed, I fall back
in the soft murmur of foliage
over the edge, drowning.

Line Citations
1 First Reading at Café No by jd4george
2 Tonight I'm Sarcastic by Epmd607
3 Whispers by Syndra Lynn
4 Talk to the Heat by The Mutt
5 In the Attic by Remec
6 There is always a trigger by Minervous
7 Another Pickup Line by Icingsugar
8 it’s not what you know by normal jean
9 uncomfortable silence by neonurotic
10 Perhaps Not Your Touch by Average Gina
11 Irren by Kaishaku
12 Beyond Zero by bluerains
13 Reluctant Muse with Attitude by Bill Dada
14 Waiting Room by Cordelia
15 Ashtray by Lalique by darkmaas
16 Falling Stars by Champagne1982
17 Disposing of Little Men by Wespeak
18 Five Wagons of Hickory Nuts by Annaswirls
19 Beethovenhous by Lauren Hynde
20 Dogwood by smithpeter

I think this is a particularly fine exemplar of a cento. Just because everything fits so smoothly together. And makes sense.

Makes a pretty good poem, actually, which is the point.

I mean, I was going to try the Jackson Mac Low radical artiste approach, but that's now been evicerated and left quivering and bleeding on the lawn.

Red and green. Christmas colors.

Hell. I'd better read some poetry.

Bitch.

 

[Angeline]

I think this is a particularly fine exemplar of a cento. Just because everything fits so smoothly together. And makes sense.

Makes a pretty good poem, actually, which is the point.

I mean, I was going to try the Jackson Mac Low radical artiste approach, but that's now been evicerated and left quivering and bleeding on the lawn.

Red and green. Christmas colors.

Hell. I'd better read some poetry.

Bitch.

Say Mr. T-zed, my real skill here was knowing whose poems to read. I have a list of authors there you pretty much can't lose with.

 

[Maria2394]

Hey, sweet sis.

It was easy once I got rolling.


First dues for the body poetica:
undo the lettuce leaves from their heart,
fantasies or memories
and miles into never minds.
Picking them up, I

reach out and cradle your
cityscapes and biospheres,
emitting profane levels of profundity.
I don’t want to be
witlessly ignorant of my mood (but)

I am a poet, therefore I lie
by the blood of man, knowing
the blank page denied
my trip to the moon; it’s been postponed.
It’s hard work keeping spirits up.

I send prayers into the evening sky,
some more valuable than others.
Eyes closed, I fall back
in the soft murmur of foliage
over the edge, drowning.

Line Citations
1 First Reading at Café No by jd4george
2 Tonight I'm Sarcastic by Epmd607
3 Whispers by Syndra Lynn
4 Talk to the Heat by The Mutt
5 In the Attic by Remec
6 There is always a trigger by Minervous
7 Another Pickup Line by Icingsugar
8 it’s not what you know by normal jean
9 uncomfortable silence by neonurotic
10 Perhaps Not Your Touch by Average Gina
11 Irren by Kaishaku
12 Beyond Zero by bluerains
13 Reluctant Muse with Attitude by Bill Dada
14 Waiting Room by Cordelia
15 Ashtray by Lalique by darkmaas
16 Falling Stars by Champagne1982
17 Disposing of Little Men by Wespeak
18 Five Wagons of Hickory Nuts by Annaswirls
19 Beethovenhous by Lauren Hynde
20 Dogwood by smithpeter

Hey, Amiga!!

Thank you so much! I needed some inspiration. Sounds like fun even if it doesn't turn out well for me.

hugs



~m

 

[Angeline]

Hey, Amiga!!

Thank you so much! I needed some inspiration. Sounds like fun even if it doesn't turn out well for me.

hugs



~m

Saw you online earlier but I was running out (to buy ice cream lol). If you use a good list of poets, you will be amazed at how easy it is. Those lines are just laying out there like veins of gold in a mine.

 

[Tzara]

Say Mr. T-zed, my real skill here was knowing whose poems to read. I have a list of authors there you pretty much can't lose with.

Still too clever by half.

I'm sulking. And I am good at that, anyway.

 

[Angeline]

Still too clever by half.

I'm sulking. And I am good at that, anyway.

Well in that case, here is some fine music to sulk by.

 

[annaswirls]

Twenty bucks? Can you wait til next friday?

Okay. Glue. Got it.

(still terrified)

Pssst. Anna... over here...

Wanna know the secret to a good Cento? Got twenty bucks?

HEY! No reason to get rude!

Well, okay then, if you want to be THAT way about it, I'll tell ya...

Find a poet that you really admire and who has a variety of poems in their portfolio. Then read each of them and copy your favorite line from each poem and paste them into a word doc. If you are luck like I was (mostly by picking LadyS whose stuff ROCKS) certain lines will jump out at you and then you can "glue" them together with other lines that you copied. Easy peasy, girl! (don't know why the same thing wouldn't work with lines from a variety of poets, but I LOVE LadyS' work, so that made it even more special for me).

 

[annaswirls]

when i made mine i started with a feeling i wanted to compose.

And i just read poem after poem until i had a few that i thought captured that feeling.

Then i looked into each one to find what they had in common and whammo it wrote itself

sigh

okay I am starting to believe y'all that it is going to write itself.

It is just so so so um... different. eek! am I a poetic conservative???