The Poets Teach Me How to Pray (a Cento)
It doesn’t have to be the blue iris. Give me the splendid silent sun. Give me a field where the unmowed grass grows. A blue true dream of sky or a few small stones. Just pay attention, tasting touching hearing seeing, then patch a few words together. I thank You God for weeds in a vacant lot, fresh corn and wheat, spontaneous songs, nights perfectly quiet, silence in which another voice may speak.
(This poem is composed of lines and phrases from “i thank You God for most this amazing” by e.e. cummings, “Praying,” by Mary Oliver, and “Give me the Splendid Silent Sun,” by Walt Whitman.)
10 thoughts on "The Poets Teach Me How to Pray (a Cento)"
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This is wonderful, Chelsie! Love thank you for weeds in a vacant lot. Great choices.
Love it. Always wanted to write a cento. You are inspiring me to try a new form, just like Bill did yesterday.
This the best Cento I’ve read. It’s mighty damn good!
what an excellent mashup!
Beautiful, Chelsie. And how we need such beauty in the vacant lots of life!
I like your poem.
Beautfiully done. I resonate with “A blue true dream of sky,” a line which will help my prayers in our NM chapel where blue defines the Other…
love your title and the lesson in your cento.
Especially love these lines:
for weeds in a vacant lot
and
silence in which another voice may speak.
Great work, Chelsie.
Beautiful! And never would have guessed a cento. Color me envious: I think I’m too adhd to do one!