The Apostrophe Blog
Two centos from my draft manuscript, I Am Speechless—“Cusp” and “where late the sweet birds sang”—have been accepted for published in the When It Rains It Pours anthology from Kind of a Hurricane Press. The latter is below and it’s followed by the list of poets whose lines I borrowed to construct this “found” poem.
where late the sweet birds sang
considering The Sixth Extinction
white day, black river
a taper in a rushing wind
as seed follows flower to earth
the light passes
in a silent boat
carrying her full cargo of roses
where the waves break
at the point of shining feathers
then leave old regret
never reaching
the lucky ones with their shadows
when the flowers turn to husks
under a deserted sky
dark, and rain in the air
at this end of the milky way
only consonants and vowels
This poem is a cento of first and last lines taken from poems featured in The Voice That Is Great within Us edited by Hayden Carruth. These sixteen lines are by the following poets: William Carlos Williams; Sara Teasdale; Conrad Aiken; H.D.; Lorine Niedecker; Theodore Roethke; Archibald MacLeish; Diane Wakoski; J.V. Cunningham; Mina Loy; W.S. Merwin; Galway Kinnell; John Berryman; Charles Olson; Gary Snyder; and John Crowe Ransom.
The poem takes it title from a line in William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73: “That time of year thou mayst in me behold.”
My photo above is of the Garden of Surging Waves in downtown Astoria, Oregon.
- Silent Morning, Unbuttoned Thoughts Rattling Around - December 6, 2024
- Publication News: “These Miles to My River” - December 1, 2024
- Piecework - November 30, 2024