Stars stud the black sky
where the snow tree grows
and I in my white bones
housed among branches.
Slender tree fingers,
why am I here
in yellow forsythia
again, running among daisies.
Now I am a leaf
between the sky and the ravine.
I will call on the wind
Oh, Bright Spirit,
open these thousand doors
then my heart will rejoice.
(Please Note: Titles and lines for this Cento is from Carmen’s book, The Moon Before the Sun. A Cento borrows the lines from another poet’s work and reimagines them. All the lines are Carmen’s own words scattered throughout the many poems in her book. )