First Tuesdays |||

The Cento for September 12, 2023

During every First Tuesdays open mic, we communally compose a cento using language taken from each open-mic reader’s offering. On September 12, 2023, those readers were: Peter Marra, Liz Gray (reading Robert Duncan), Nicole Woods, David Siller, Dan Fleshler, Herb Rubenstein, Andrew Dick & Adam Watson, Henry Sussman, Shams A. Momin, Ayo Inerhunwunwa, Amanda, Monija Rahman, Lily Georgick.

Whirling Dervish Brushstrokes

1.

Dirt diaries of ordinary days:
No, I didn’t dream of that city

2.

The bounties of the nightingale’s remorse:
there’s only ever the moonlight.

3.

Take account of my soul.
Look up from the circle jerk of imperial acquisition.

4.

You are nothing but dead skin cells.
Their tongues have a penchant for jabbing.

5.

I am lost in these fucking vines,
a suited man coming out of the ashes.

6.

Like every fierce lady whose name ends in a,
we didn’t talk, but we met.

Up next This Video Was Made From the May 2, 2017 Cento First Tuesdays Presents Sam Peterson
Latest posts First Tuesdays Presents Adina Dabija First Tuesdays Presents Jared Beloff First Tuesdays Presents Martine Bellen First Tuesdays Presents Sokunthary Svay The Cento for April 2, 2024 First Tuesdays Presents Sam Peterson The Cento for September 12, 2023 This Video Was Made From the May 2, 2017 Cento The Cento for May 2, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Andrea Carter Brown The Cento for April 4, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Nandana Dev Sen First Tuesdays Presents Elizabeth Wood The Cento for March 7, 2023 The Cento for February 7, 2023 The Cento for January 3, 2023 First Tuesdays Presents Shams Momin First Tuesdays Presents Steven Paul Alvarez First Tuesdays Presents Jason Schneiderman The Cento for October 4, 2022 First Tuesdays Presents Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. The Cento for September 6, 2022 First Tuesdays Presents Jacqueline Jones LaMon - September 6, 2022 Two First Tuesdays Regulars Read An Incarcerated Writer’s Work as Part of PEN’s & The Poetry Project’s BREAK OUT The Cento for December 7, 2021 First Tuesdays Presents David Mills First Tuesdays Presents Alex Segura The Cento for September 9, 2021 The Cento for March 2, 2021 First Tuesdays Presents Lola Koundakjian First Tuesdays Presents Eugene Lim