
Over at Read.Write.Poem I heard about a this mini-challenge to fall in love with a poet. The challenge calls for creating cento poems as the means to fall in love. A cento – as I have recently learned – is a patchwork poem of lines taken from other poets. Normally the cento draws from many poets, but for this mini-challenge, you are to focus on one poet only; this is where the love part comes in.
I selected Nikki Giovanni because her poetry has inspired me so much in the past (present, and future). I foraged through two of her books to find the lines for my first cento: Acolytes and Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea. Here is what I came up with:
Quilting Acolytes
I know poems get lost…because they’re always being found
sometimes this poem feels lonely…sometimes this poem yearns
struggling…to lift itself into the wind
we need poetry…we deserve poetry
poetry is the antidote…to arrogance
poems are serious business
let’s write poems
{ 0 comments }







