Blind Eyes Could Blaze Like Meteors is a collage and cento poem. See below for the works I used for the cento. The poem carries the length of both images, starting with ‘Blind Eyes Could Blaze Like Marries and ending with ‘How soon succeeding eyes begin.’

FYI: A cento poem is a poem that takes lines from other pieces of work to make a new work of its own. To see an example, other than my own, look up Wolf Cento by Simone Muench

The two images I used are ‘Pastoral’ by Leonora Carrington and ‘Jupiter und Io’ by Antonio Allegri. This content of the poem takes place in a mead or field at dusk, so I used ‘Pastoral’ to reflect the setting and time of day. Also, the colors of the image are very dark and diluted so this helps dramatize the disparity of the poem.  ‘Jupiter und Io’ depicts Jupiter (a Greek God) as a dark cloud caressing the nymph, Io. I researched this painting online and discovered that Io is one of Jupiter’s many loves who has been seduced by him. Since the speaker of my poem has come across a woman who is desperate for his love, I felt that the voices of the characters in my poem reflect the intent of the characters in the painting.

Lines of poem taken from the following poems:

Do Not Go Gentle into that Goodnight by Dylan Thomas

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats

Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens

To See A World… by William Blake

The Song of Wandering Aengus by W.B. Yeats

Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Colleridge

An Anundrel Tomb by Philip Larkin

Daddy by Sylvia Plath

Stop all the Clocks, Cut off the Telephone by W.H. Auden

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson