Myrtle - A Cento Poem

Beyond the waste of broad, muddy fields

I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet

Otherwise

I can't stand my own mind

What in me he was, and who

We are, I am, you are

You made me want to be a saint

And there is no one

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see

Would let their wisdom be the whole of love

And when we meet at any time again

I refuse to give up my obsession.

[poems used: Allen Ginsberg - 'America', William Carlos Williams - 'Spring and All', Wallace Stevens - 'The Idea of Order at Key West', Denise Levertov - 'Uncertain Oneiromancy', Adrienne Rich - 'Diving into the Wreck', James Merill - 'The World and the Child', William Shakespeare - 'Sonnet 18', Michael Drayton - 'Farewell to Love']