Spending at Penmaen Pool (A Cento)

[Silas Thorne]

This Gerard Manley Hopkins cento was created by using lines and half-lines from his complete works, including the unfinished ones, in order to make Penmaen Pool into a gay bathhouse. It was a hard job, but here's what I've got. I'm not sure if it's a cento strictly, since in some cases I use phrases and not lines, but hey. Here it goes anyway:




Taste the treats of Penmaen Pool.
boys from the town, world’s loveliest-men’s selves
bathing.



Henry, by the wall,
beckoned me beside him.


I kissed the rod... lapped strength.

It gathers to greatness.

‘Limber liquid youth, spend here your measure!’

He shoots
short

skywards

up to the round air like the ooze of oil.

Now he gasps,
now he gazes everywhere
in his ecstasy....



Part was picked for John.
Kind comrade,
he is known to men more than me.

How it does my heart good
right rooting in the bare butt’s wincing navel.
Nothing else is like it.

My lad cries
wrung all on love’s rack,
‘Oh Christ! Oh Christ! come quickly!’

...for that I came.


What is all this juice and all this joy?
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.

[Hawkman]

It was a great idea Silas, but the elements' cohesion is a little patchy. I suppose it functions as a sort of stream of consciousness piece with leaps and asscociations , grasshoppering the focus around a rather bumpy field, but this means it isn't an easy read.

Live and be well - H

[Silas Thorne]

Yes, I think you are right Hawkman, thanks. Will cut it down considerably to make it clearer. If it's hard to interpret, the fun is gone.
Work in progress....

[Bar22do]

any results yet so that I too can read? :smile5:

[Jack of Hearts]

It's disappeared!





J

[Hawkman]

Hopefully it'll be back soon :)

[Silas Thorne]

OK, it's now there.

[Hawkman]

Did you go to a public school by any chance? - LOL. Definitely pithier than the first draft. Nice one, Silas.

Live and be well - H

[Jack of Hearts]

lol






J

[Bar22do]

Perfect "cento" or not, it's a perfect poem (to me!) with its unique atmosphere, celebration of love and its powerful colours. Not by chance did it bring Platon's Sumposion to mind. Well done, Silas!

[AuntShecky]

The "cento" form is a new one on me, but I see that it's postmodern all the way. I tried to write a "curtal" sonnet-- a form invented by Father Hopkins-- in my 30/30 thread.

From his perch in the heavenly realm, I hope he's looking the other way, though, re: your subject matter. As a priest he was devout and impeccable; as a poet he was a genius.

[Hawkman]

Oh no... Not the P word again :rolleyes5: Centos have been around for a few thousand years :D
(Well, 1600 anyway)

[miyako73]

If the homoeroticism you want in this is funny and playful, you've succeeded. If you want to present the twisted or bestial "love" in gay cruising complete with angst and wondering, it has failed.

[Silas Thorne]

Thanks for taking the time to check out the poem guys!

Hawkman and Jack: Glad you guys enjoyed it. It wasn't easy to get this story out of it actually. Hawkman, yes I did go to a public school, but I think what in Britain you would call a public school is a private school over here. :)

Bar: Thanks for the praise. I don't think I was aiming for 'love' here though, more of joy in physical pleasures.

Auntie: Thanks for dropping by. I hope your battered body is knitting itself together well.

I think the whole point of a cento is to corrupt the original intention or attitudes of the writer. In this case it was making an incredibly devout Jesuit priest write gay erotica. No, the form itself isn't really postmodern, since the cento has been around since around the 2nd or 3rd Century, I think, although if I have been influenced by postmodernism it is certainly not because of any knowledge I have of postmodernism.

I also love G.M. Hopkins' work, and think he was a poetic genius. But hey, I'm an atheist so I don't think he's looking down on me from anywhere. Perhaps I'll try to make John Wilmott the Earl of Rochester write an incredibly devout religious poem at a later date.

miyako: Thanks for commenting too. Then I have succeeded, as my intent was to create a light amusing poem filled with joy in homosexual physical love. It was hard to do, but I think it was good practice.

Maybe I'll go back to writing poems on the joys of cleavage now...

[Bar22do]

Bar: Thanks for the praise. I don't think I was aiming for 'love' here though, more of joy in physical pleasures.


miyako: Thanks for commenting too. Then I have succeeded, as my intent was to create a light amusing poem filled with joy in homosexual physical love.

and this is exactly what I called 'celebration of love', Silas! :smile5: