21 Comments
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Jeffrey Streeter's avatar

Beautiful, Maureen. Borges said somewhere that language was a network of quotations and I guess that might make every poem a "cento". Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking work.

Lawrence Omoregie Jr's avatar

Beautiful

Lawrence Omoregie Jr's avatar

You're welcome

Rona Maynard's avatar

Thank you for this beautiful word collage, which awakened a memory from my teen years. I liked to cut out words from the ads and headlines in magazines. Glued to a big sheet of paper, they became poems that assembled themselves as if guided by an inner force. The results delighted me, but I didn’t take them seriously enough to keep them. Now there is no stack of magazines.

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you for reading and commenting, Rona; and for sharing this memory. I imagine your poem-collages were quite wonderful.

Kim Nelson's avatar

Beautifully constructed. Deeply moving without being maudlin. Brava, Maureen.

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Kim, thank you for so generous a comment.

X. P. Callahan's avatar

Extraordinary.

Peggy Rosenthal's avatar

I hadn't known about the cento concept. But wow! What a challenging feat you've accomplished here. You must have had fun pulling this off!

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you, Peggy. It can be a challenging, certainly. As I recall, this one took more time because sometimes I was only using a word or two from another poem rather than an entire line or full phrase.

Drea Cohane's avatar

Beautiful and haunting! Just how I like my poetry.

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you, Drea.

Laura B.'s avatar

You are always teaching me something, Maureen. And this poem! Haunting imagery.

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you, Laura.

Robert McDowell's avatar

Terrific!

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Gratitude for reading and commenting, R.

Beth Kephart's avatar

I always learn so much from you.

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you for this lovely comment, Beth.

Calul Journal's avatar

Powerful

Maureen Doallas's avatar

Thank you for reading and commenting, Rachel.