Poem of the Week: 1.5.23
"Shazam Cento 2" by Ricky Novaes de Oliveira
SHAZAM CENTO 2
by Ricky Novaes de Oliveira
in the RED ROOM inside my head I’M SLEEPIN’ IN til tomorrow stays still i promise YO NO SOY CELOSO this time i know OH! TENGO SUERTE to have had you IN MY LIFETIME besides IF IT WAS EASY then why must EVERYTHING HITS AT ONCE why must i PLAY WITH FIRE just to see the DAYLIGHT waste my youth as a CHILD PRODIGY now just a VATO eating up the PLASTIC ELASTIC taking shots out of SHAMPOO BOTTLES holding my old TEDDY BEARS like they are you like there never was an UGLY ENDING but there was. why must SURVIVING within this MEMORY MACHINE mean always gazing towards THE OTHER SIDE how i wish i could get STRUCK BY LIGHTNING so things would change but all my hopes are DAMAGED GOODS all my dreams are SUEÑOS DECEPTIVOS and honestly it’s all so HARD TO BELIEVE that DOING WHAT THEY TAUGHT US has led to a NIGHT AND DAY asking gasping WHO'S GONNA SAVE MY SOUL again AVALANCHE after avalanche each constant catastrophes 4 THE BETTA profit of money pots with a fake MESSAGE (BETTER DAYS). if I had to sum it up BEING IN LOVE + SANS TOI = GLOOM but i don’t. so each DOMINO falls eventually the BREADCRUMB TRAIL - REMASTERED. if not for DOJA then for sure WE'RE ALL GONNA BE KILLED by this NEW MEDIA praising HOLY SUN razing an EX LION TAMER casually WALKIN because they NEED TO BE alright, alright? WASTE NO TIME to HOLD MY HEAD because i’m SICK AND TIRED there isn’t enough CAFFEINE to put me in a CATS GROOVE every day BROKEN HOME, BROKEN HEART this UNCONTROLLABLE URGE realized EVERY MORNING blocking STEPPING INTO TOMORROW via ELECTROCUTION invisible BOUNDARIES that persist IN A PHANTOM MOOD. i could emerge from my BENADRYL SUBMARINE meet those DEADLINES (THOUGHTFUL) but EVERYDAY, I DON'T. i go to POLAND read the texts already sent until they are DECODED i am red from these CITY LIGHTS going CRAZY
Thank you for reading the Poem of the Week, and happy new year!
Last week’s POTW had me reminiscing on 2022. In my opinion, good riddance! Last year sucked. Nonetheless, there was a lot of good music to be heard. Music is the heartbeat behind all the poems I write, and I thought it would be productive to make something good out of last year’s bad by writing about the songs that carried me through.
As the name suggests, “Shazam Cento 2” is a cento, or collage poem. According to the official Poets.Org, the cento comes “from the Latin word for ‘patchwork’ [and] is a poetic form composed entirely of lines from poems by other poets.” You may have already guessed it, but each of the capitalized words and phrases is the title of a song from a Spotify playlist I made last year. Though traditional centos use lines—direct quotes—from other poets, I went with the titles of songs in “Shazam Cento 2” to try something new. (“Shazam” because the first poem I wrote using this method was made using songs I tagged on the Shazam app, and I just think that’s a cool word.) I didn’t use every song in the playlist, and the poem is not as polished as the ones I usually share, but it is raw and honest, two qualities that I think make for decent art.
Writing with constraints often delivers strange combinations of words. Perfect for poetry! Keeping the song names as they were, in the order that I added them, and making a poem of it was tricky yet unrestrained. I let my thoughts flow and let the “story” tell itself. Not that there is a story when it comes to poetry; rather, there is a combination of moment and emotion that we might all interpret differently and similarly at the same time. Songs have that same effect regardless of their language, rhythm, or sound so I find sense in writing poetry from them.
Try the cento poem for yourself! If you have any playlists, book stacks, unread texts, recently watched lists, gift receipts, or other records from last year lying around, see if you can find the poetry in them. You can drop what you write down below, or just hit me with a song rec.
I hope luck is on your side this year, and that you work hard enough in case it isn’t.
CRAZY, Ricky
