Day 30: Magic cento

Today is the day to finish things and maybe start new ones. We had another amazing April, my fifth, in the company of Maureen’s prompts and all the poets and their poems. My last poem is for you all.

Prompt 30: “Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a cento. This is a poem that is made up of lines taken from other poems.” 

What a great final prompt! I love centos. So far I have written:

• one with nothing but song lyrics with words “yellow” and “green”,
• another with song lyrics including “moon”,
• one with a Beatles/Rolling Stones mash,
• one with a mix of the Doors lyrics and famous poems,
• one with a blend of Shakespeare’s sonnets,
• and my favourite – a cento titled “Art likes to make more of itself” that I wrote for our April 2019 with lines from my favourite poems of all times, including some by you.

No matter how much I attempted to, I still fell short in reading all of you. That’s why please do not despair if I failed to incorporate you in my today’s cento. We all did our best, I’m sure.

Thank you most kindly for your company and to Maureen Thorson for her splendid prompts. Many new forms were attempted or tackled from a new angle. Many times I said aaaah when reading you all. Many times I was warmed by your comments. I hope to see you all back next April.

My cento is made up with verses from 24 memorable poems written this month by 24 fellow participants. Sometimes I had to change the verse length or the final punctuation, but the rest remains intact. Thank you, all! The links follow bellow the poem.

April Magic (cento)

A poem to write in the moonlight. 
Where to start on this page?1

Do not always choose the prettiest words.2
Better roll. Who wants to gather moss?3

I thrill to find new shapes for myself4
tucked away in the middle of lonely.5

<much poetry happens here>6

My ancestors came from the land 
of magic, after all,7

and I’m better for the love found there. 
Nothing will eclipse that.8

The child of Nature with all of the Spring inside,9
oodles of sass, a touch of foolhardiness.10

We were together again last night11
and then spend the whole day trying to become unlost.12

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. 
So does presence and wine.13 You had to be there.14

Return me to the timeless before, when 
land was shared, not owned15

revisiting lives I haven’t lived - 16
please do not drop packages there.17

In less than two hours, 
the world will upgrade.18

We pride and collide, we try but die.19
It was always just beneath the surface.20

I think dreaming is what remains21
when every hue dives into one huge indigo pool.22

They don’t know when to stop23
and I dream myself asleep.24


1 N. K. Hasen, Poetry by Hasen
2 Judy Dykstra-Brown, lifelessons
3 Smitha Vishwanath, EÚNOIA
4 Alana Prochuk, Poem Dive
5 Katie Staten 
6 Mary Beth Frezon, Orientation::Artist
7 Nataša Božić Grojić, Summer Blues
8 Ken G., RIVRVLOGR
9 EXPRESSIONS ESPRESSO, Freshly Brewed Content
10 Punam, paeansunpluggedblog
11 Charlotte Hamrick 
12 Sunra Rainz 
13 Romana Iorga, clayandbranches
14 Christopher Perry, Voyage des Mots
15 Kerfe Roig, LINES THAT AIM TO BE
16 Paula, Poetic Inquiry For Beginners (Like Me)
17 Xan, Xanku
18 Selma Martin, Selma Writes
19 Gloria D. Gonsalves
20 Flutterby, Flutterby's NaPoWriMo
21 M, Grapeling
22 Elizabeth Boquet
23 Ruth Berkoff, Words With Ruth
24 Barbara Turney Wieland, barbaraturneywielandpoetess

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This post is also for Patrick’s Pic and a Word challenge on the theme of magic. Words were magical already, and here are some magical plants waving to you from tropical Tuscany. Growing wildly right now, not in a botanical garden!

In response to Patrick Jennings’ Pic and a Word Challenge #311: Magic

The last day in my NaPoWriMo history

2018: A few strange and fascinating facts for the month of April

for Tuscany doesn’t know me yet
for once I open my mouth
I sing

neither have I
known myself as
/imagined to be,
fantasised to become/
a poet
(Read all.)

2019: We did it!

Bath on the path.  
           Pack on the back.
                   Bath on the pack.
                            Back on the path.
                                    Pat on the back.  

View more Tuscany.

2020: To return

War cries
prose lives
sun beds
hot heads

the smog
the heat
the sea
the hurt

Freedom
health
sanity
stores

April
poems
chores
hugs
cheers
doors. 

Read all.

2021: Put the dishes in the dishwasher but not like that

Use normal salt. 
It’s the same as dishwasher salt, 
only cheaper.

But above all, 
fill it quietly like I am doing it now, 
so that you don’t wake up your love 
who you think is sleeping 
but is actually writing 
the last poem.

And then run it anyway.

This is how you reach 
the end of the month. 
And now what? 

Read all.

This day in my blogging history

• 

  2014: Janis Joplin and her George.

• 

  2014: Ledena (“Icy”) by Olivija (my translation):

  come, let’s go
  to the end of the world
  i can’t do without me and i can’t do without you
  me, the slave of reason, you, the slave of bodies (Read on.)

• 2014: Every time I’m with you, by Patetico (my translation):

  you said: stay
  stay here by my side
  because your sadness
  is fed with my happiness
  but i threw myself into you
  like into an abyss
  hoping that down there
  someone loves me (Read all.)

• 

  2015: The sun was about to say buonanotte, Lucca. And then said, okay, one more.

• 

  2016: One door from every place we visited with our visitors.

• 

  2016: Incongruous poppy field

• 

  2017: What I’ll always think when observing a wedding: “Serves them right.”