Write word-centos of poetry by Marc Vincenz,
Kashiana Singh, Megha Sood and Muriel Cuissard.
A word-cento is one of my invented forms of poetry. It is a
rearrangement of the words of a poem by a single author.
I try to exhaust every single word of the poem (though lately
I’ve only been doing some). I lose the structure of the original
poem, do not position any two unique words next to each other,
and the resulting poem is a response to or a continuation of the
original poem.)

 

UNTITLED

(a word-cento of Marc Vincenz’s
“She, at Heart, a Blue Whale,” *)

Deep incantations swallowing serpents,
shimmering a neon revolution,
a speck of bone and suns
under the water cracked
like men on blood,
ribbons dreamlessly swept
our ambition in the sky shedding skin
within skin stressed by something still
as the ocean in our eyes,
a monster glowing bright,
murmuring men of blood birthing blood,
a wheel of forgotten lessons
awaken a world forgotten
in the sky.
Breathing layers of ancient blood,
we read the back of our hand
and climb in trenches of skin,
a forgotten song
marrowed in the deep.

* Original poem by Marc Vincenz published
in Superstition Review, Issue 12. Fall 2013.

 

UNTITLED

(a word-cento of Kashiana Singh’s
“her forest” *)

Virgin moons conjoined ocean of hope
before the universe unboned stories
inside the center of life.
Lost galaxies flood wombs of
soul dance in the sky aflame
with birth of marigold suns
on tongues brimming seasons of
chorus wings
at the center
of life.

* Original poem by Kashiana Singh published
in Ekphrastic Review. January 1, 2021.

 

UNTITLED

(a word-cento of Megha Sood’s
“Syncopation” *)

Stripping soliloquy of scorching solitude
symphony,
broken waves carved existence in wind,
bereft whispers, desires in the lonely sun,
my salvation sewing dreams together with laughter
crashing nights’ companion,
a constant cacophony within the winter’s gale:
the loneliness that dreams…

* Original poem by Megha Sood published
in Litehouse. January 13, 2021.

 

UNTITLED

(a word-cento of Muriel Cuissard’s
“Tonight” *)

Empty sea, siren from the sky,
struggle to fly
from blessings invisible.
Forget home,
as mirrors forget shame
reflecting skin
dancing under twilight
in pieces on the floor.

* Original poem by Muriel Cuissard published
in Litehouse. March 19, 2020.

 

Joshua Corwin, a Los Angeles native, is a neurodiverse, 2-time Pushcart Prize-nominated, 1-time Best of the Net-nominated poet and Spillwords Press Publication of the Month winner. His debut poetry collection Becoming Vulnerable (2020) details his experience with autism, addiction, sobriety and spirituality. He has lectured at UCLA, performed at the 2020 National Beat Poetry Festival and Mystic Boxing Commission Festival of Sound and Vision, read with 2013 US Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, Michael C. Ford, S.A. Griffin, Ellyn Maybe, among others. His Beat poetry is to be anthologized alongside Ferlinghetti, Hirschman, Ford, Coleman and Weiss late this year (Sparring Omnibus, Mystic Boxing Commission). He hosts the poetry podcast “Assiduous Dust,” writes the weekly Incentovise column for Oddball Magazine and teaches poetry to neurodiverse individuals and autistic addicts in recovery at The Miracle Project, an autism nonprofit. Corwin’s collaborative collection A Double Meaning, with David Dephy, is currently seeking publication. He also has forthcoming collaborative poetry projects with Ellyn Maybe including Ghosts Sing into the World’s Ear (Ghost Accordion series 1st Wave, Mystic Boxing Commission). Corwin is editing and compiling Assiduous Dust: Home of the OTSCP, Vol. 1 (forthcoming April 2021, TBD) featuring 36 award-winning poets, all demonstrating a new type of found poem (OTSCP) he invented.