A Cento on Living
We are dust and dreams;
we live in what kills us.
We are put on earth a little space
that we may learn to bear the beams of love,
to leave tracks.
Somehow, each of us will help the other live, and somewhere,
each of us must help the other die—
golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust;
so teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Line 1: A.E. Housman
Line 2: John N. Morris
Lines 3- 4: William Blake
Line 5: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Lines 6-7: Adrienne Rich
Line 8: William Shakespeare
Lines 9-10: Psalm 90:12 KJV
Photo by Nataliya Melnychuk on Unsplash
Prompt: The Writer’s Digest defines a cento this way: At it’s most basic level, the cento is a poem comprised of lines and phrases from other previously written poems. Many centos… use the work of multiple poets. But there are some that focus on just one specific poet.
Write your own cento using lines from other poets or writers or maybe concentrate on lines from one poet. Make sure to credit those poets, as I did in ” A Cento on Living,” first published by the Georgia Poets Society.