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"Diving Into The Wreck"

"Diving Into The Wreck"
I dove into the wreck, only to be anchored to the ruins of a broken heart.

"Diving into the Wreck"[1]

You love not me,[2]
For you come to Him with your hunger,[3]
And shrunk, half scorn and half disgust,[4]
With his venom[5]

I can see that dream is done.[6]
I don’t love you.[7]
(I think I made you up inside my head.)[8]
And like the cat I have nine times to die.[9]
I want to love you through them all.[10]

We, of that time, are no longer the same.[11]
We braved the belly of the beast.[12]
sweaters unravel, and marriages[13]
Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat[14]
The long wind, paring her person down[15]

As he defeated – dying –[16]
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find[17]
That Sense was breaking through -[18]
Love is the only emotion that I truly hate.[19]


Works Cited

  1. Diving into the Wreck, Adrienne Rich ↩︎

  2. A Broken Appointment, Thomas Hardy ↩︎

  3. On Friendship, Kahlil Gibran ↩︎

  4. The Silk-Worm’s Will, Hannah Flagg Gould ↩︎

  5. With his Venom, Sappho, Translated by Mary Bernard ↩︎

  6. Not Meant To Be, Katy Mikelle ↩︎

  7. I Don’T Love You..., Marcus Lomboy ↩︎

  8. Mad Girl’s Love Song, Sylvia Plath ↩︎

  9. Lady Lazarus, Sylvia Plath ↩︎

  10. Seasons of the Heart, Anna Paige ↩︎

  11. Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines), Pablo Neruda, Translated by W.S. Merwin ↩︎

  12. The Hill We Climb, Amanda Gorman ↩︎

  13. after the funeral, Marita Dachsel ↩︎

  14. Modern Love: I, George Meredith ↩︎

  15. Night Walk, Sylvia Plath ↩︎

  16. Success is counted sweetest (112), Emily Dickinson ↩︎

  17. The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot ↩︎

  18. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340), Emily Dickinson ↩︎

  19. Love Hate, David Charlton ↩︎

💡Poem Explanation

Diving into the Wreck is a cento. A cento is a poem made entirely from lines written by other poets — a collage of borrowed voices stitched into something new. Each line is kept intact, but together they form a different meaning than they did alone.

Historically used to honor or transform the work of others, a cento is an act of both reverence and reinvention. It asks: What happens when fragments of one heart meet fragments of another?

This particular cento was created using lines from poets across time, style, and story. In assembling it, we didn't just borrow their words — we listened for the ache between them.

🔁 Redraft Trail:

No redrafts yet.
What happens if the puppet cuts its strings?
Or the stapler jams?

💬 Contribute Your Voice:

What line caught in your throat?
What image would you keep — or tear out?

🔹 Submit a redraft: Submission Form
🔹 Join the thread: Stapled Shut Discord Thread

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