Tag: cento

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Celebrating Living Poets: Nicole Stellon O’Donnell

It’s Day 5 of the Slice of Life Challenge at Twowritingteachers.org, and as I move through the month of March celebrating living poets, I think back to the summer that Penny Kittle invited readers to engage with You are No Longer in Trouble during the Book Love Summer Reading Club. I was mesmerized by the prose poems that Nicole Stellon O’Donnell wrote as she told of her life growing up a Principal’s kid and later becoming a teacher herself. This book is a treasure, and one in which I believe we can all see ourselves at some point of our lives. For me, it’s the poem Marriage, about second graders getting married in “a rash of weddings” at recess with flowers pressed into aluminum foil bouquets. Sheer treasure!

Nicole Stellon O’Donnell of Alaska is a master of prose poems! You can read more about her at this link.

I’ve used this collection to write a Cento by taking lines of her existing poetry and rearranging them into a new poem.

Tips for Not Sagging

Even the waitress at the post-funeral reception noticed

nothing about me sags.

Bag sagging between her hands,

it’s in the steps, in the motion of go, in the bent knees, the swing of an arm.

Never forget that.

Taken from these poems, in this order: Excuses for the Pilgrimage; A Teacher Playing a Movie Star Playing a Teacher; At Least Name What it Is; No One Takes Attendance at Commencement; What Not to Say to Your Students at the Juvenile Detention Center.

This month’s first ten days of Living Poets: A Sneak Peek of what is to come

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Celebrating Living Poets: Amy Nemecek

The third day of the 19th Annual Slice of Life Challenge is well underway at Two Writing Teachers’ website, and I invite you to visit and read the posts shared by writers across the globe, who give us a glimpse into their daily lives. This month, I’m featuring a living poet each day and creating a Cento poem from the poems in their collections. You can read more about Cento poetry here.

A few years ago, Fran Haley of North Carolina (blog: Lit Bits and Pieces) sent me a copy of The Language of the Birds by Amy Nemecek one spring when we were both participating in The Great Backyard Bird Count. I’m thanking Fran for this gift of poetry, and I’m celebrating Amy Nemecek today!

Amy Nemecek is a violinist and poet who lives in Michigan, and you can read more about her on this link that features a few other poets as well (scroll down on the post to read about Amy). Here is an additional link about Amy.

Choosing Tunes

Just when I think it’s over

I feed the jukebox quarters

As you slow dance around me

Lulled by the rhythm of pewter waves

I join you in its convex solitude

reminding you, reminding myself

our imperfect submission affords no rest.

My Cento lines are taken from these poems, in order: Larch Song; Acedia; Light Fantastic; Back to School; Companion; Beloved; and Vigil.

A sneak peek of the living poets featured the first ten days of March

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Celebrating Living Poets: Brian Rohr

Day 2 of the Slice of Life Challenge has me feeling energized with all of the fabulous writing that bloggers are sharing at Two Writing Teachers for the 2026 Slice of Life Challenge, where writers share daily snapshots of meaningful moments of their lives. You can check it out here.

My theme for this month was inspired by a friend who recently sent me a book she’d read (The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali). Thanks, Glenda Funk! Glenda said that she passes most of her books on, but she keeps poetry. It got me thinking about the living poets who are part of The Stafford Challenge and other writing groups like Poetry Friday. Perhaps I could expand my own collection of living poets – and that became a mission.

And so I set out to take a hard look at a diverse range of living poets. I discovered that no matter who we are – male, female, of all ethnicities and heritages, of urban or rural settings, of all religions and ages and places in the world – we all need poetry. Especially now. Especially in these times. Some of us read it, some of us write it, and many of us read and write it.

I decided to feature a living poet each day, celebrating their work and using their poems to create Cento poetry by taking lines of their existing poems and weaving together a whole new poem. You can read more about Cento here.

Today, I celebrate Brian Rohr, author of Shaken To My Bones: A Poetic Midrash on the Torah.

Brian Rohr started The Stafford Challenge, now in its third year of inviting poets to come together and to write a poem every day for one year. You can read more about Brian at his website. I’ve taken his collection of poems and formed a Cento poem, and I’ve listed the names of the poems I used, in order, beneath the poem.

When God Speaks

A star shoots across the sky.

Blue and red birds appear in my birch tree.

A bird with a blue head and blue wings flies past my window.

There are ways God speaks to me.

We can see the breath.

Taken from: Before; My Longing; Outside it is Raining; I am Joseph; In the Cool Air of the Morning Mist.

The first ten days of March will feature these poets – this is a sneak peek photo!