Smaller Ghots Jennifer Moore Seven Kitchens Press, 2020 Part of the Seven Kitchens Press Editor’s Series, Jennifer Moore’s Smaller Ghosts (2020) is a collection of centos. Through the repurposing of other written material, centos read as a conversational exchange between authors of differentiating styles, genres, and generations; each cento is one of a kind. Moore’s source material is vast, including lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Lenore,” William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Emily Dickinson’s “The Zeroes — taught us — Phosphorous,” among others. What makes Moore’s centos unique is her ability to use the form to its fullest. Smaller Ghosts is a haunting text where reminders of the past lurk. The ghosts, themselves take on a cento-quality in their ability to haunt, to cause others to relive moments, and to recycle themselves into new and ever-present material. Moore carefully crafts her images and metaphors around enjambments. In her cento, “It’s supposed to be temporary,” she writes, It’s supposed to be temporary, the moon ghosting a hole through the water, blue planets in full view. The skeletons leave handprints. They speak as one person, waiting for you with a message […] As the lines cascade into each other, the poem’s enjambments work to highlight the haunting ability of the text; the presence of both the ghosts and the centos are lingering as forms which cannot be erased but only rekindled and reinvented. The enjambments also work to show a seamless integration of the source material. Successful centos, like those found in Smaller Ghosts, thrive because of their ability to highlight their sources while also losing sight of where one ends and one begins. Another standout use of enjambment highlighting the cento form is in the poem, “At first a slight unsteadiness.” Moore muses, “Ghost, you’re a fool to think/ you can bargain/ with a burning house.” Like the rippling flames of a fire, the lines link to each other, connecting and creating a piece that burns with intensity. In employing enjambment so successfully, Moore creates pieces which not only showcase the form but calls attention to their images and metaphors, like that of the burning house. If I were to write my own cento inspired by Smaller Ghosts as my source text it would read as follows:

>While my poem does not employ the same enjambment style as Moore’s pieces, I hope it illustrates that the poems within Smaller Ghosts refuse to be forgotten; their strong images contain multiple metaphors which cannot be contained by a single meaning; their edges are sharp capable of puncturing a reader to their core, while being soft enough to flow and shift based on the reading. May these centos be a reminder that reinvention and reinvigoration is what keeps the craft of poetry exciting. Visit Jennifer Moore's Website Visit Seven Kitchens Press' Website

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