H. C. Phillips
I am born in this
I am born in this month
to someone else’s suns
clouds drifting, like mountains moving, without seeming
dug from the white sand ocean dream
waves and waves and waves.
What have I come for
Footprints dug deep into the beach, left there
and cracking into halves. Weightless bodies
printing my grandfather’s wilderness
stolen from bodies and bodies this
bobbing softly in the water,
rock me back to myself
The me is from shoulders down for air
echoing from the cavern behind
with a long tear at the top that I know I should have stitched,
I labor to bring forward a virgin breath
I come to the same place
my pulse beating strong and steady
I will be here longer
Born: as act against, into.
Source & Method
A cento with lines from these poems, which were published in places in which my own work has also been published (reflecting the poem’s theme). The final line is a self-citation, entering my own voice into the literary sphere.
“Birthright” by Fran Bourassa. Wordplay at Work, RCLAS’ e-zine, Issue 66 (online)
“Emoji of a Crystal Ball” by Halle Gulbrandsen. Lines+Stars, Spring/Summer 2019 (online)
“Looking the Other Way” by M. J. Iuppa. Lines+Stars, Summer/Fall 2016 (online)
“Cancun” by Heather Louise Walmsley. emerge 16, The Writer’s Studio Anthology, SFU
“Nearby is the Country” by Lois Roma-Deeley. Lines+Stars, Summer/Fall 2016 (online)
“Landscape Fabric” by Cameron Morse. Lines+Stars, Spring/Summer 2019 (online)
“The Fall” by Alyssa Moore. Columbia Journal, Issue 57
“Sepia” by Carole Harmon. emerge 16, The Writer’s Studio Anthology, SFU
Excerpts from “Disfigured Hours” by Brian Batchelor. Columbia Journal, Issue 57
“Dermo Sparkle” by Dia Felix. Columbia Journal, Issue 57
“Dialogues” by Adriane Giberson. emerge 16, The Writer’s Studio Anthology, SFU
“My Chair” by Lawrence Bridges. The Write Launch, October 2020 (online)
“On Irish Accents” by Shelby McBane. The Write Launch, July 2019 (online)
“Hello Dear Visitor” by Elizabeth Novotny. The Write Launch, October 2020 (online)
“Familiar Cycles” by Cynthia Megill. The Write Launch, October 2020 (online)
“life after death” by Barbara Carter. Wordplay at Work, RCLAS’ e-zine, Issue 76 (online)
“The Rock’s Lament” by Chanel Brenner. Lines+Stars, Summer/Fall 2016 (online)
“Rebellion in the Night” by H. C. Phillips. Wordplay at Work, RCLAS’ e-zine, Issue 76 (online)
H. C. Phillips currently writes and studies neuroscience. Past forays include studying physics and an upbringing in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. For now, nestled in the mountains of Port Moody, Canada.
