Encounter in the Rose Garden (a cento)

For the final day of NaPoWrimo, I followed the prompt to write a cento, which takes lines from other poems to form a new poem. I changed capitalization and punctuation from original texts to better fit my poem, but I made sure to annotate where I found each line of poetry (scroll to the bottom of this post to see the annotated version.) 

Encounter in the Rose Garden

By Candace Shultz

The rose is a rose
It gives a lovely light
You turned in the light, your eyes
In icy fields
It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready

Though I have trouble imagining what that could be

The world is at least fifty percent terrible

This place could be beautiful

Making it easier for us to breathe

Open your eyes to water
Warm the earth
Here’s a new morning

Breathe

Encounter in the Rose Garden [Annotated]

By Candace Shultz

The rose is a rose

    [Robert Frost, "The Rose Family"] 

It gives a lovely light

    [Edna St. Vincent Millay, "First Fig"]

You turned in the light, your eyes

    [Rita Dove, "Happenstance"]

In icy fields

    [Naomi Shihab Nye, "300 Goats"]

It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready

    [Karina Borowicz, "September Tomatoes"]

Though I have trouble imagining what that could be

    [Chen Chen, "Self-Portrait as So Much Potential"]

The world is at least fifty percent terrible 

    [Maggie Smith, "Good Bones"]

This place could be beautiful

    [Maggie Smith, "Good Bones"]

Making it easier for us to breathe

    [Ross Gay, "A Small Needful Fact"]

Open your eyes to water

    [Lucille Clifton, "blessing the boats"]

Warm the earth

    [Nikki Giovanni, "BLK History Month"]

Here’s a new morning

    [Lia Purpura, "Resolution"]

Breathe

    [Lia Purpura, "Resolution"]