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SERVANTS AND INSTRUMENTS OF SONG—Marie Ponsot: Cento

*Each line is drawn from a different poem in Marie Ponsot’s collection, Easy.

The lesson of the day: longing

Ready hearts hammering

Out resurrection, halleluia in yanked abandon

At the edge of vision

Grateful, grateful, my hand slow to turn the page

Close to the edge of a clear brook

Is a bridge or go-between

Others call sky

We extravagant chat easily

Conversing hand lifted to open hand

The delicious tongue we speak with speaks us

Servants and instruments of song

We are more than we thought

My self, its selves, and how they move to unify

It’s more than one thing at a time

The will dissolves here. It becomes the infinite

Across our other sky

A universe at its origin

Kathleen Gunton is completing her collection of cento poems. More than forty-five of these poems have appeared in publications as varied as the Cresset, Cura, First Things, Hawaii Review, Rhino, and Rockhurst Review. She lives in Orange, California.

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Published in the April 2020 issue: View Contents

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