When JC read of the death of poet Mary Olive, she paused to remember very fine words by Oliver that will stay with her always.
“As A.Garnett Weiss, I wrote the following cento a few years ago, which I offer in recognition of Oliver’s craft and soul as a poet. May her memory as was her life be a blessing,” JC stated.
HOW DOES ANY OF US LIVE IN THIS WORLD
In every language, there is a word for it—
the dark heart of the story that is all.
Like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of a song
about the great wheel of growth,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
aches to be peaceful finally and at any cost—
a dream that would never breathe air.
How the mind clings to the world it knows, rushing
by the notion of oblivion:
all those gleaming and reasonless lives
in the crease and spasm of the thing about to be done
in those dark halls of honey,
with the reason for the wind forever a secret.
Cento gloss: How does any of us live in this world
Title: Mary Oliver, “Consequences”
Line 1: Mary Oliver, “The River”
Line 2: Mary Oliver, “The Chance to Love Everything”
Line 3: Mary Oliver, “Dogfish”
Line 4: Mary Oliver, “Stanley Kunitz”
Line 5: Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”
Line 6: Mary Oliver, “Members of the Tribe”
Line 7: Mary Oliver, “The Swimmer”
Line 8: Mary Oliver, “Robert Schumann”
Line 9: Mary Oliver, “Bowing to the Empress”
Line 10: Mary Oliver, “Whispers”
Line 11: Mary Oliver, “The Shark”
Line 12: Mary Oliver, “The Moths”
Line 13: Mary Oliver, “Orion”
Homage to Mary Oliver
When JC read of the death of poet Mary Olive, she paused to remember very fine words by Oliver that will stay with her always.
“As A.Garnett Weiss, I wrote the following cento a few years ago, which I offer in recognition of Oliver’s craft and soul as a poet. May her memory as was her life be a blessing,” JC stated.
HOW DOES ANY OF US LIVE IN THIS WORLD
In every language, there is a word for it—
the dark heart of the story that is all.
Like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of a song
about the great wheel of growth,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
aches to be peaceful finally and at any cost—
a dream that would never breathe air.
How the mind clings to the world it knows, rushing
by the notion of oblivion:
all those gleaming and reasonless lives
in the crease and spasm of the thing about to be done
in those dark halls of honey,
with the reason for the wind forever a secret.
Cento gloss: How does any of us live in this world
Title: Mary Oliver, “Consequences”
Line 1: Mary Oliver, “The River”
Line 2: Mary Oliver, “The Chance to Love Everything”
Line 3: Mary Oliver, “Dogfish”
Line 4: Mary Oliver, “Stanley Kunitz”
Line 5: Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”
Line 6: Mary Oliver, “Members of the Tribe”
Line 7: Mary Oliver, “The Swimmer”
Line 8: Mary Oliver, “Robert Schumann”
Line 9: Mary Oliver, “Bowing to the Empress”
Line 10: Mary Oliver, “Whispers”
Line 11: Mary Oliver, “The Shark”
Line 12: Mary Oliver, “The Moths”
Line 13: Mary Oliver, “Orion”
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