It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I’m going to celebrate the morning with a cento composed in this case of titles of popular songs I love, two per line:
Poem in the Manner of a Jazz Standard
I’ve got five dollars and my love to keep me warm
I’ve got the world on a string and you under my skin
You’re the cream in my coffee and driving me crazy
You couldn’t be cuter and go to my head
Love is here to stay and just around the corner
Where or when I take my sugar to tea
All I do is dream of you, all of you,
You took advantage of all of me
Don’t blame me or worry ‘bout me
It had to be you and might as well be spring
Let’s get away from it all, fall in love, face the music
And dance with me, let’s do it
I got rhythm and the right to sing the blues
She didn’t say yes she’s funny that way
I believe in you were never lovelier
My melancholy baby my shining hour
— DL
For more on the cento as a form, go here and here.