A Cento: Herons at Sunrise

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Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

I climbed through woods in the hour-before-dawn dark;
I wandered lonely as a cloud,
from purple forest to golden sky;
a thin wet sky, that yellows at the rim,
and meets with sun-lost lip the marsh’s brim.
Cold water-mouths move and sing
and the night herons brood in their heronry like yoga masters.
Tell me is there anything lovelier?
I resisted the mad impulse to put them into a golden cage
and to catch one is to know. Know what?… 
love written on the dusky wing.
Poems are made by fools like me.
The birds have less to say for themselves.

Immature Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

I. J.’s Birds of the Week Invitation LXXI

W3 Prompt #114: Wea’ve Written Weekly’s poet of the week, Dawn, prompts us to write a cento on the theme of love. “Essentially, a cento is composed of lines of poetry from other poets’ works. For this prompt, please weave together as many lines of poetry from other people’s poems (of your choice) as you’d like.”

I have chosen lines from the following poems:

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes 
“I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” by William Wordsworth 
 “At Dawn” by Alfred Noyes
“Marshlands” by Emily Pauline Johnson  
“Marsh Leaf” by David R. Wagner
“Dispatches from Devereux Slough” by Mark Jarman
“Greenness” by Angelina Weld Grimké
“Ode To My Socks” by Pablo Neruda
“Memory-Wax, Knowledge-Bird” by Kristy Beachy Quick
“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer 
“A Line-storm Song” by Robert Frost

Published by JJJ Interactive Books

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