Yesterday, I wrote a blog post for Medium.com that was published by Globetrotters.
It was a post about the Hawaiian town of Lahaina, which as most of you have heard, was devastated by wildfires earlier this week. I’ve visited Lahaina three times from 2009-2022.
My post is linked above in the first sentence. I encourage you to read it, as it will give you background for the cento poem (my first ever) that I wrote last night for Poetry Friday, today.
A Cento for Lahaina After The Wildfire
I stand quietly on Front Street
balancing the sun on my head. (Shaffer, Lahaina Noon)
Large sea turtles and some whales
will outlive us, water a manifestation of wind in another dimension. (Dodd Lee, Suffering the Unattainable)
The enigma of August. (Rappleye, A Path Between Houses)
What does the sun see through
pages of smoke? (Muske-Dukes, Wildfire Moon)
I whirled through transfigurations up and down,
transfigurations of size and shape and place: (Ammons, Still)
Some say the world will end in fire (Frost, Fire and Ice).
To think that we are now here, and bear our part! (Whitman, To Think of Time).
© Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2023
Why a Cento?
Cento means patchwork. The Hawaiian islands are patchwork stitched together by history.
The authors of each line are noted at the end of the phrase with a link provided to where I found their poems. The cento combines lines from different poems to create a new piece.
This was a fun exercise for me and introduced me to the work of many poets.
Call for Submissions
My Ekphrasic Poetry Nature Anthology for children ages 10 and up is open for submissions.
The link to my submission guidelines is found at the top of my blog in the menu that runs horizontally across the page. If you have trouble accessing it or trouble with the submission process, please contact me. I’ll be glad to try and help you.
The photos you choose to submit that match your poems need to be emailed to me, following the labeling and submission guidelines (please check these first). The file upload boxes are not showing – this is a WordPress Glitch – for they show in my post/file draft. The email to do that is labcar81@gmail.com.
Thank you for your consideration and pass the word!
The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2023. Acceptances are on a rolling basis.
Today is Poetry Friday. Our round-up host is Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference. Thanks for hosting Tabatha and for coordinating our summer poetry swap. It has been so much fun!
The Apples in My Orchard 
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