Cento Poetry Challenge

A cento is a poem composed entirely of lines taken from already published poetry. The word "cento" means "patchwork," and you can think of a cento as a verbal quilt made up of fabric (=lines) from different sources sewn together.

You can read an example of a cento at http://herontree.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/purdy1pdf.pdf

For this swap, each participant will create a cento of at least 8 lines and will send it to 2 partners. You can use lines from poems by all different authors, lines from multiple poems by the same author, or even lines drawn from different places in a long poetic work. In past rounds of this swap people have asked if song lyrics can count as poetry, and I say yes--so feel free to use lyrics if you want.

Try not to alter anything in the original lines except punctuation and capitalization, and please make sure you include a key to your cento in which you list the authors and poems from which your lines are taken. Also include English translations in your key if some (or all) of your cento is in a language other than English.

How you present your cento is up to you: typed, hand-written, bound into a booklet, etc. Do whatever feels right to you.

Other details: 1) No unrated swappers or folks who have done only electronic swaps. 2) Swappers with a rating below 4.90 will be dropped before partners are assigned. 3) I may drop swappers whose profiles or ratings raise concerns when I look at them; if there is something you'd like to explain about your ratings and/or sending history, please contact me in advance.

Since this swap isn't profile-specific, you can start working on your cento right away if you'd like. So crack open your volumes of poetry, and enjoy!