Your Favorite Centos?
 

Hi All,

Am teaching a course on documentary poetry and remixed poetry this coming spring and was wondering if you have some favorite centos you might recommend to me. I do have the cento anthology and there is some good stuff in there, but typically it's more clever than poetic, to my taste. I'd be curious to hear if you've discovered any terrific poems that are also centos (broadly defined--patchwork poems, in other words).

Thanks,

Tony

Maryann Corbett's cento inspired by Kenneth Goldsmith's contention that "plagiarism is the new originality" was a perfect match of subject and form. I also liked the way she alternated consonance and perfect rhyme.

For me, the trouble with centos (including Maryann's) is that I tend to recognize the source of fewer than half of the lines. Consequently, I can't shake an unpleasant feeling that's sort of a cross between mild annoyance at being left out of the joke and anxiety that I'm underprepared for a pop quiz.

Where recycled materials are concerned, I prefer poems that meditate upon a single line from another author (often in a repeating form like a ballade, villanelle, ovillejo, or sonnenizio). That way, the reader's unfamiliarity with the borrowed line isn't such a (real or perceived) disadvantage.

But I still like to have the sources identified in some way that doesn't involve my Googling anything. I don't understand why all you folks who find notes patronizing can't just skip them--they're not for you, they're for lazy ignoramuses like me. But I digress.

Susan McLean's "Women's Wear Daily" in her latest book--a poem previously workshopped at Eratosphere--is a wonderful sonnenizio on a line by Ann Drysdale.

Or, for poetic scrutiny of the borrowed material, I'd go for the Glosa, which removes all uncomfortable doubt, since it quotes its seminal quatrain at the outset.

Sam Gwynn's cento using lines from the Norton Anthology of American Poetry (I think that's the source) is hilarious.

There is a contemporary journal called The Found Poetry Review where you can find centos (although their review times are glacial).

Julie, that is a hilarious cento by Maryann. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Tony, I would also cast a vote for Sam Gwynn's cento with lines from The Norton Anthology.

Susan

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Thanks, all! I'll see if I can find Sam's somewhere. Maryann's is perfect, as I'm teaching Goldsmith's transcription of the Columbine 911 phone call. Have you seen this? http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...n-the-internet -- pretty hilarious!

Best, T

Hi All,

Found Sam's terrific cento, and several of you have sent me your faves, as well--and they are wonderful. Thanks for the help!

T

Sam's is the best I've ever seen, although hailing from Beaumont, he thinks this a perfect rhyme: thing/sang.

I haven't read Sam's, but will keep an eye peeled. There are so many Norton anthologies.

Maryann's was excellent. Thanks Julie for the link, and thanks Maryann for writing it.