Patrice Boyer Claeys has written five poetry books, three with collaborator Gail Goepfert. Most recent work has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, NELLE, Scapegoat Review and North Dakota Quarterly. Her mother’s expert quilting instilled the idea of patchwork, which Patrice now explores through the cento, her preferred poetic form.
The Long Bodies
Wrapped in a yellow
chemise
or
radiant in a
swooped pink neckline
the long bodies
arch to the sun.
They are thin
with passion
throats and necks
lush, iridescent
living wings.
And I have traveled along their contours
feeling
a kind of miracle—the dreamed
brief Eden
of curvature.
Cento sources: Mark Doty, Linda Gregerson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joseph O. Legaspi, Sina Queyras, Muriel Rukeyser, Lola Ridge, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Lee Ann Brown, Louise Gluck, Arthur Goldbarth, Arthur Sze, Henry Zolinsky, Tim Seibles, Lois Beebe Hayna, Jerome Ellison Murphy
Nothing Needs to be this Lavish
The soft knots
warm and dew-pearly
tight, like a woman,
open
with such tenderness
until they become
a piece of splendor
in a crystal bowl.
Oh, loose bloom,
you are a perfumed woman
giving
unhurried pleasure
your hips
decadent in silk
like an empress.
Nothing needs to be this lavish.
Only a rose.
Cento Sources: Susan Landers, Christina Rossetti, Victor Hernandez Cruz, D. H. Lawrence, Derrick Austin, Kimberly Blaeser, Patricia Spears Jones, James J. Ryan, A. E. Stallings, Jessica Hagedorn, Nora B. Cunningham, Juliana Spahr, David Trinidad, Ben Fama, Rachael Sherwood, Mark Doty, Philip Whalen