Monday Poetry Stretch - Another Cento

Since the inception of the Monday Poetry Stretch, we have practiced writing centos in two different ways.

The first cento excerise focused on writing a "true" cento, or poem made entirely of pieces from poems by other authors.

The next cento challenge was to write a "modified" cento, one in which the poem was composed of titles of books.

This weekend I read Michael Albert's book, An Artist's America. In it, Albert presents a series of collages created by taking everyday objects, like cereal boxes and soup cans, cutting them (or their labels) into pieces, then putting them back together in a new form. What is intriguing about these pieces of art is that even reassembled, many iconic images are still recognizable, like Tony the Tiger, the Campbell's soup label, the Trix's rabbit, and more.

So, inspired by Albert's book and art, I would like to suggest that this week's challenge be to write a cento composed of popular slogans and/or advertising phrases. I am trying to imagine how snippets of phrases like "it takes a licking and keeps on ticking" and "good to the last drop" might find their way into a poem.

Therein lies your challenge for the week. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post all the entries here later this week. Have fun with this one!