Throughout the month of March, I have been celebrating a different living poet each day by taking lines of their existing poetry and rearranging them into new poems called Centos. Today’s living poet is one that I was blessed to hear as part of the Stafford Challenge monthly guest speakers. Lauren Camp was the Grand Canyon’s Astronomer in Residence and a New Mexico Poet Laureate. She read from a couple of her books, including In Old Sky and shared of her theme of darkness and how it is often misperceived.
You can read about Lauren Camp, along with her poetry, here. If I were writing an introduction to my slice I am envisioning for March 31, today’s poem would set the stage.
Voices of the Poets from Center Circle
Many of our people have lived
Nothing is insignificant, but I know the room
Where the center is
is this truth
is, the future
let that vision be as large as creation
Lines for this Cento were taken from these poems, in this order: Diminishing Echo; Reclaiming Perspective; Bluest; Into this Absence; Prognosis; Fear of.
Common Threads 
Kim,
Hearing Lauren Camp speak makes me want to visit the Grand Canyon again. I camped there back in the 90s and have been there many times. The night sky is never really dark, but it is vast. And the circle imagery in your cento begs the question, “What is the center of the room? of the universe?” What is the room is something I’m thinking about as March nears its end. This month has felt at times as though there is no center to hold.
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Glenda, thanks for reading and commenting and I know you so well to believe that you would answer that question with this: the truth of poetry is the center to hold.
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I have never been to the Grand Canyon, but I would love to see the night sky from that location. My favorite line from your cento is, “Nothing is insignificant, but I know the room.”
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Thank you, Lori! I, too, would love to see the night sky over the Grand Canyon. I want to feel the immensity of the universe there like no photo can ever capture.
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I will definitely check this poet out, as I really like New Mexico. Glad to learn she is their Poet Laureate! And lovely cento by you!
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Thank you, Sally! I should clarify she was NM’s Poet Laureate 2023-2025. You will love her poetry – she truly is a deep thinker and an amazing poet.
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Great choice! During a dark period, I found one of her poems somewhere, like on poem for the day, and it was a guiding force in looking up, to the hills so to speak, for hope and light. I lost it somewhere along the way from a pocket or wherever I stuffed it, but your words brought her support tumbling back. I hiked up and down the Canyon about 10 years ago in a bucket-list-honor of a friend and colleague who passed from cancer. It is a place where many connect with the hills,
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What a collection of poems you have created using this approach this month! The thought of taking someone’s lines of which we may never know their true meaning and making it have a new meaning for you is incredible.
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