Cento: Emily Dickenson (Julie Zei)

Word Count: 707

We pray-to Heaven – (489)
To One denied to drink (490)
And then a Tract between (545)
It could not hold a Sigh - (542)
A Dimple at a time- (559)
Over your impotence (854)
Did they forget thee? (192)
Gay little Heart – (192)
Here to light measure, move the feet (24)

And though they now depart, (5)
When April woods are red. (142)
A Gymnast and an Angel (59)
Would anybody care (146)
And answer What I do – (400)

Some – Work for Immortality – (406)
How many Flowers fail in Wood – (404)
If God could make a visit – (413)
Reviewed it with my eyes, (412)
Telescopes would know – (433)
The Service without Hope – (779)

If Love be just beyond – (781)
How vigorous a Force (780)
Their Voices did expend (783)
Will stir and understand – (1383)
Proud of my broken heart, since thou didst break it, (1736)
Burden – borne so far triumphant – (1737)

The Track called Land. (884)
We outgrow love, like other things (887)
Remembering (882)
Each Second is the last (879)
So when Thou failest, nobody. (881)
Even for Death, a fairy medicine. (691)
Victory comes late – (690)
And in the Grave – I see Thee best – (611)
You’ll find – it when you try to die – (610)
Bars – cannot conceal! (528)
It may be – a Renown to live – (444)
To cover what we are (443)
There’ll be that Dark Parade – (389)

Nature – sometimes sears a Sapling – (314)
As Players at the Keys (315)
Just as the Night keeps fetching Stars (224)
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers – (216)
Least Rivers – docile to some sea (212)
It should not tease you – (186)
Only the soldered mouth can tell – (187)
The Skies can’t keep their secret! (191)
The smaller of the two! (246)
The day was warm, and the winds were prosy – (245)
Like a Panther in the Glove – (244)
Power is only Pain – (252)
He’d – climb – if He could! (251)

As cool to speech – as stone – (496)
Those fair – fictitious People – (499)
That has so little Oil – (561)
It knew no lapse, nor Diminution – (560)
I hunted all the Sand – (566)
Unbroken by a Settler – (564)
You’ll know Her – by Her Voice – (634)

The Cruel – smiling – bowing World – (717)
Before Me – Immortality – (721)
So larger to my Eyes (756)
These – adjust – that ran to meet us – (758)
The thought beneath so slight a film – (210)
Brave names of Men – (260)

There’s a certain Slant of light, (258)
Of Bronze – and Blaze – (290)
A half unconscious Queen – (508)
A Dying Tiger – moaned for Drink – (566)
There seemed to rise a Tune (606)
The Wind – unrolled it fast – (602)
The Trees like Tassels – hit – and swung – (606)
One and One – are One – (769)
Were Challenging Despair. (770)
Propounded to Belief. (1017)

Who saw no Sunrise cannot say (1018)
How far is it to Heaven? (929)
It measures like the Sea (928)
Growth of Man – like Growth of Nature – (750)
The Flowers – appealed – a timid Throng – (743)
To shut the Other’s Gaze down – (640)
There breathed a Man – (614)
I rose – because He sank – (616)
I see thee better – in the Dark – (611)
I laughed a crumbling Laugh (609)
My figures file away. (69)
I’d rather call him “Star.” (70)
There is another sky, (2)
Who never lost, are unprepared (73)
A science – so the Savants say, (100)
Will there really be a “Morning”? (101)

Maybe, we shouldn’t mind them – (224)
Could I – then – shut the door – (220)
Never any bend (292)
With different Delight – (294)
What I can do – I will – (361)

The first Day’s Night had come – (410)
‘Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch, (414)
A warrant, a conviction, (1713)
And crossed a thousand Trees (1600)
And quake – and turn away, (1518)
The depredation of a Breeze (1434)
There was no harm in earth or sky – (1419)
Bold little Beauty (1332)

JULIE ZEI