Finding A Poem

Seeing it’s National Poetry Month, I’ll try my hand at some different forms this month. This one is a CENTO.

Robert Lee Brewer, in his list of various poetic forms, writes: “The cento…is a form of found poetry that is entirely composed of lines and phrases from previously written poems.”

I feel like I’m the AI here: taking snatches of already-done to create something new. Probably Oh, well…good exercise.

I’ve drawn from these poems to create my CENTO:
She Walks in Beauty by George Gordon Byron
My Mother’s Garden by Alice E Allen
Let Me Grow Lovely Growing Old by Karle Wilson Baker

In Beauty, Growing Old

She walks in beauty, growing old –
so many old things do –
a garden old-fashioned, quaint
laces and ivory, forget-me-nots,
to full perfection brought.

Old streets a glamor hold,
we know as we pass by,
mellowed to that tender light
which heaven to day denies

Pansies bloom in tender thought
that softly lightens her face.
Love’s roses blossom, grow lovely
growing old, in goodness spent.

Songbirds always singing,
how dear their dwelling place
and from it floats forever,
the smiles that win, the tints that glow
a mind at peace with all below,
the fragrance of her life.