A "cento" is a Roman poetic form meaning "stitched together"; each line of the poem is drawn from a different source. "Cento" also resonates with the number one hundred, and many centos are a hundred lines long. The "SemiCento" is a fifty-line poem made from lines drawn from poems written in twenty-eight different languages and from periods throughout all of history. It was commissioned by the Frankfurt Bookfair and its first performance was at a dinner commemorating the Fair's fiftieth anniversary.

The "SemiCento" and its polyphonic performance serve as a metaphor for the mission of The World of Poetry project: to gather together poetry texts and performances in all of the world's languages to be broadcast internationally and made available to people everywhere over the Internet. The poem is a work in progress which will culminate with the performance of the Millennium Poem (one thousand lines! the whole world's poetry in a single poem!) on December 31, 1999.