Tuesday Tryouts: The Cento

The Tuesday Tryout for this week is a cento poem.  This is a new form for me.  Margo provided some good direction and also referenced We Write Poems for further explanation.  Both are proposing the cento form this week.  Basically, you pick an author you like.  Then you take one or two lines from poems that they have written (at least five different poems); shooting for 10-15 lines.  Then the fun begins.  You mix up the lines, without changing the words, and make a new poem.  Here's my shot at it.

Poet: Mary Oliver

Poems (in no paticular order): Rain 3; Peonies; Field Near London, Alabama; Gannets; Alligator Poem; Poppies; Water Snake

He lifted up
his chary face
and looked at me
with his gravel eyes.
Who was that motionless muddy man?
Life is real
and pain is real
but death is an imposter.

Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying.
For hours in my trembling hands they glittered
like fire.
The grass rises thick and clean, it
shines like the sea.