“A cento from Thompson & Merwin”

O Halcyon! was thine auspice not of rest?
This is now the house of the rain that falls from death
The stealthy terror of the sinuous pard,
as it bore in bore in rapidly
Then laid upon the snarling sea;
melting and freezing in silence
Now all things show amiss;
On hewn feet I follow the hopes of the owls

08 25 04

“A cento from Cranch’s Virgil”

Stormy Orion rising, on blind shoals
And waves consumed in vain. Of what avail

Our sad disasters, and in brief to know
The serpent tribe, the poison-breathing snakes,

Furious, with bristling back, while none may dare
And, building altars on the shore, you pay

And to our tables come as welcome guests.

08 25 04

“A cento from Susann & Merwin”

You’ve got to climb to the top of Mount Everest
the tracks lead out through tall milkweed
It’s a brutal climb to reach that peak,
I would rather the wind came from outside
You never knew what was really up there
Where I am walking even now
You stand here, waiting for
A description of darkness
it doesn’t come.

We are the echo of the future
And there’s no place left to climb.

087 26 04