A Cento A Day index
For the month of October, there will be an attempt to post one Cento poem a day.
But what is a cento?
From the Latin word for “patchwork garment,” a cento is a literary work collaged entirely from other authors’ verses or passages. In their earliest forms, centos were often composed as tribute, such as those by Byzantine empress Eudocia Augusta, which paid homage to Homer. Centos had a resurgence in popularity with the rise of collage as a compositional device among Modernist writers and can be seen in works such as Ezra Pound’s Cantos and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. In “Lepidopteran: A Cento,” poet Linda Bierds weaves together lines and phrases from Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Hardy, and Alan Turing.
For my centos, I have selected a music album and composed a poem with either one or two lines from each song to create something new.
The idea to post one cento a day struck me while enjoying a youtube video by Struthless titled "A chaotic guide to making stuff instead of doomscrolling" or as the thumbnail put it "What to make when you don't know what to make". This video mentions a few things, but the two that inspired this attempt are (1) make something from someone else's art and (2) give yourself a time limit.
The Albums (Artist - Album Title [release year])
Links will be updated as they are added.
10/1: Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes [1983]
10/2: Taylor Swift - Folklore [2020]
10/3: DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? [1978]
10/4: Skegss - My Own Mess [2018]
10/5: Josiah and the Bonnevilles - Endurance [2023]
10/6: Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger [1975]
10/7: Hozier - Unreal Unearth [2023]
10/8: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend [2008]
10/9: Sabrina Carpenter - Emails I Can't Send fwd: [2023]
10/10: Noggintoboggan - Snapcase [1999]
10/11: Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever [2021]
10/12: Limp Bizkit - Significant Other [1999]
10/13: Zach Top - Cold Beer & Country Music [2024]
10/14: George Strait - Chill of an Early Fall [1991]
10/15: Colter Wall - Little Songs [2023]
10/16: Petey USA - The Yips [2025]
10/17: Loyle Carner - hopefully! [2025]
10/18: Gracie Abrams - The Secret Of Us (deluxe) [2024]
10/19: William Elliot Whitmore - Animals in the Dark [2009]
10/20: Orville Peck - Bronco [2022]
10/21: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? [1995]
10/22: Weezer - Weezer (blue album) [1994]
10/23: The Clash - London Calling [1979]
10/24: Oingo Boingo - Only A Lad [1981]
10/25: Megan Moroney - Lucky [2023]
10/26: Jay-Z - 4:44 [2017]
10/27: Minor Threat - Minor Threat [1981]
10/28: Lumineers - Lumineers [2012]
10/29: Kesha - Rainbow [2017]
10/30: Mac Miller - Circles [2020]
10/31: Haku. - Catch EP [2025]
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