Shout Out

29º and a bit past sunrise, clouds out the south window, blue sky out the west

A giant shout out to the poets I met at Hendrix College yesterday afternoon/evening. Many thanks to Hope Coulter and the Murphy Foundation for making my visit possible. (The Murphy house is stunning!) More than thanks to Taylor, Michael, Matt, Julia, Lily, Becca, Joseph, & Tim for sharing your drafts with a stranger and listening with so much attention to my comments. I will be looking for your names alongside mine in the journals very soon! The whole event was a complete delight from arrival to departure.

To celebrate, I've created a cento from the pieces we workshopped last night.

Wrapping Boys Inside Birds: A Cento

My capabilities lie flat across my chest,
truncated, only an S-Curve hinting at a heroic pose.
I wanted to find my own uncertain fingers in your fragments.
Your essence in the air,
golden brilliance shimmering
down the middle,
producing only smoke and sorrow songs.
....................................You could say
I died like the rain.