After Putting a Poetry
Anthology in a Blender
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
No man is an island, entire of itself.
I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
To err is human; to forgive, divine.
To see a world in a grain of sand.
I met a traveler from an antique land.
About suffering they were never wrong.
If music be the food of love, play on.
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Tony Peyser’s poems are regularly in Lighten Up Online, the British journal of comic verse. In 2024, he was a semifinalist in the Philadelphia Stories’ National Prize in Poetry and was also long-listed for the 2024 Kingfisher Poetry Prize. In 2025, he was a finalist in New Millennium’s “America, One Year From Now” contest and received a special mention in the 2025 Whispering Wisdom competition. He lived in Altadena, CA until losing his home in the 2025 Eaton Canyon Fire and has since moved to Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.
An entertainng and rewarding poem. Thank you, Tony! I suspect more poems should be put in blenders.
A fun poem to lighten up a blue Monday. Glad to see that in the face of adversity you can still see the funny side of life – I’m a Lighten Upper, too.
Tony, you indeed put some familiar phrases into the blender and amplified the results. After reading your bio, I felt the final line of learning where you have to go was a reflection of your own move from California to New Jersey.
A poem like this used to be be called a “cento,” or a patched quilt of various lines from other poets. This one is a real mix!
I just love this clever and highly entertaining poem. The pairings are delightful, especially: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” which had me laughing out loud with the image it conjured. It makes me want to reach for a peach and dare to eat it for lunch. Thank you!