—Randall Jarrell: Cento*

He calls out: Mother
And the night holds its breath
She serves a symbol for this world
Clothed with the wind, light in the light
Her body is incandescent with rainbows
And all at once the garden is lighted
I am floating here in light
Children, come to my knee
She said to them tenderly. And they
And we start home. Now I am good
The maid lets fall her mystery
And I felt a pang of such joy
With the songs of the world where no one dies
Into the innocent world of light
Here is knowledge, is wisdom—see! see!
The things you don’t know. . .

*Each line is drawn from a different poem in Randall Jarrell’s collection, The Complete Poems.