on naming yourself (a cento)
This cento is composed of text from 11 poems by the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winners.
Source poems include:
"I Should Like to Fall in Love with a Burro Named Saturnino" by Sandra Cisneros, published in Woman Without Shame (Knopf, 2022)
“Shard #41” by CAConrad, unpublished
“Testimonial” by Rita Dove, published in On the Bus With Rosa Parks (Norton, 1999)
“Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni, published in Ego-tripping and Other Poems for Young People (Lawrence Hill, 1973)
"Handful of Gravel" by Juan Felipe Herrera, unpublished
“Summer and the City” by Angela Jackson, published in Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, 2022)
"Liberation Narratives" by Haki Madhubuti, published in Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems: 1966-2009 (Third World Press, 2009)
“Meditation During the Sufferings and Deaths of Others” by Sharon Olds, published in Balladz (Knopf Doubleday, 2022)
“This is Not a Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez, published in Wounded in the House of a Friend (Beacon Press, 1995)
“The Writer’s Song” by Patti Smith, published in Auguries of Innocence (Ecco, 2005)
“Sight Lines” by Arthur Sze, published in Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press, 2019)
Jamila Woods, "on naming yourself (a cento)" from the program for the 2022 Pegasus Awards, celebrating the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winners: Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Patti Smith, Angela Jackson, Haki Madhabuti, Sandra Cisneros, Arthur Sze, CAConrad, Sharon Olds, Sonia Sanchez, and Juan Felipe Herrera. Chicago, IL: Poetry Foundation, October 2022.
Source: Poetry Foundation, 2022