Patchwork Poetry

Poetry Ireland Day will be celebrated on the 29th April 2021, why not celebrate by creating a poem of your own? Maybe try a Patchwork Poem?

A Patchwork poem, also known as a Cento poem, is one created out of other poems, or writings. Just as a patchwork quilt is assembled out of a collection of materials stitched together, a patchwork poem is put together out of a collection of other written works.

You can choose to use other poems, or maybe just lines in a book or article you like. Your new creation should make sense, but it can be about atmosphere or a sense of time, place or even mood.

Here is my first attempt:

Through the air as grey as smoke (Badger – Berlie Doherty)
No birds came, but I waited (The King of the Ditchbacks – Seamus Heaney)
We have no time to stand and stare (Leisure, William H  Davies)
And no birds sing (La Belle Dame Sans Merci – John Keats)
The sky gathered again (Fern Hill – Dylan Thomas)
The rooks are all flying (Bed-Time – Thomas Hood)
Against a restless sky (Goodwin Sands – Judith Nicholls)

If you do write your own Patchwork Poem please feel free to share it with us, we'd love to see your creations. And don't forget to mention where your lines or words come from.

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