Neil Said "Hi" By The Way

I recently learned about the Cento poetry style. I felt like Frankenstein cobbling parts together to make a monster.

Paper Cut Pages

Mar 6, 2026 · 1 min read

Cento: Neil Said “Hi” By The Way

I felt a funeral in my brain

And miles to go before I sleep

The sheep know all about it

But I have promises to keep

Each day you organize the dreams

There is no frigate like a book

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead

Dear Lord, it had a fiendish look!

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This Cento is a patchwork of poems from the poets/lyricists below:

Tori Amos, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Ted Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Comments (6)

Paper Cut Pages7h ago

Some of you may know the reference of the title and the controversy behind it. I use it mostly to say I mourn when a hero disappoints.

Tim Forsythe7h ago

I’d not heard the term Cento to refer to this. Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

Hughes7h ago

Thank you for introducing me to the form. Very cool. A somber poem.

LK Nesse6h ago

Thank you for this! I recently was playing with an idea about doing something like this (including the same Robert Frost line, in fact) but started having some doubts. I didn't know it's a legit style! I might go back to the idea.