Scavenger (a cento*)

Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Spinner of litanies, list-maker:
I am a soul smuggler (je suis un passeur d’ames)
What poetry demands is worse
The strange hours we keep to see them:
An indecipherable cause
To blanch the fire and clot the cloud
It’s not only light that falls
Something terribly nimble-fingered
Catches on innocence and soon dismantles that.

 

*a poem made of lines or passages from the works of other poets. In other words, trying to write a poem with training wheels on.
Sources, by line: 1. Gerard Manley Hopkins, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame; 2. Alfred Yuson, Night Loves; 3. Marc Michiels; 4. Linda Gregg, A Mountain Facing A Mountain; 5. William Carlos Williams, January Morning; 6. Wallace Stevens, 13 Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird; 7. Kevin Goodan, To Crave What The Light Does Crave; 8. Pablo Neruda, Ode To A Beautiful Nude; 9. Jorie Graham, San Sepolcro; 10. Jack Gilbert, The History Of Men

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