It’s that time of year when the gardener in me ventures out with new plans and older tasks. One of which is to complete plumbing a cascade I’ve built from rock rubble though that will have to wait until the month is a little warmer. Until then I went in search of some free flowing watery lines and came first to this extract of Henry Vaughan’s “The water-fall” –
…Dear stream! dear bank, where often I
Have sate and pleas’d my pensive eye,
Why, since each drop of thy quick store
Runs thither whence it flow’d before,
Should poor souls fear a shade or night,
Who came, sure, from a sea of light?
Or since those drops are all sent back
So sure to thee, that none doth lack,
Why should frail flesh doubt any more
That what God takes, he’ll not restore?…
And in this extract, Lauris Edmonds employs “The Waterfall” as a metaphor for ageing and a relationship:
I do not ask for youth, nor for delay
in the rising of time’s irreversible river
that takes the jewelled arc of the waterfall
in which I glimpse, minute by glinting minute,
all that I have and all I am always losing
as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling….
…But when you leave me, with your jauntiness
sinewed by resolution more than strength
– suddenly then I love you with a quick
intensity, remembering that water,
however luminous and grand, falls fast
and only once to the dark pool below..
So for todays Meeting the Bar challenge we are writing Cascade Poetry:
A form created by Udit Bhatia, repetitive in a smooth cascading way like a waterfall, reusing each line of the first stanza as a refrain in the subsequent stanzas.
Poetry Style:
- write a Hexaverse poem i.e. 6 stanzas
- each stanza has 5 lines (quintain)
- the first stanza provides the repeat lines for the next five stanzas
- repeats are made as the final line of these next stanzas
Poetry Structure:
- line 1 of stanza1 becomes the last line of stanza2
- line 2 becomes the last line of stanza 3 -and so on
- A,B,C,D,E – x,x,x,x,A – x,x,x,x,B – x,x,x,x,C – x,x,x,x,D – x,x,x,x,E
Poetry Rules:
- you must keep the opening stanza’s line order in the repeats
- avoid regular meter as the waterfall does
- there are no requirements to rhyme, syllable count, line length etc – its optional
Suggestion: For your opening quintain why not select one (or any 5 consecutive lines) from a previously written poem of yours? It might help get the ball rolling! Try to choose one without much enjambement as discrete lines make better sense here.
You might like to make the theme of your poem fit the notion of a cascade though its not necessary
Comment: We do not seem to have had a Cascade poetry style prompt at dVerse before though Amaya gave it as an extra challenge in a Poetics prompt of April 2019 as tercets – I’ve opted instead for quintains as there are so few rules, the words should flow!!
So once you have posted your poem according to the prompt’s guidelines above, do add it to Mr Linky below then go visiting and reading other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.
[N.B. Mr Linky closes Saturday 3 p.m. EST]
Laura Bloomsbury said:
Hello Poets – snow turning to rain here so plenty of water though that is not the only thing being served at the bar – name your drinks as I do the rounds of your poems
paeansunplugged said:
Hi Laura! Cascade is an interesting form. Though writing in quintain was a bit daunting.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
it stretches enough for our Muse to go swimming 😉
paeansunplugged said:
Haha!That it surely does. Thanks as always for the mental calisthenics. 😀
Laura Bloomsbury said:
glad you did not drown!
dorahak said:
Hello Laura — Thanks for hosting. A challenging form you’ve introduced us to but fun to attempt at least! No water for me thanks, from snow, slush or tap! I will have a cup of hot chocolate though 🙂
Laura Bloomsbury said:
Ha ha Dora – I’ll join you with that hot choc - and thanks for joining in – I’ll soon be stopping by to read
dorahak said:
🙏🏾😊💖
msjadeli said:
Hello Laura and All. I enjoyed writing to this challenge. The subject is obliquely, but essentially, related to water. One hot cuppajoe with oat creamer and some oatmeal and raisin cookies, please :)
Laura Bloomsbury said:
an interesting order Lisa – and your poem sounds enigmatic too –
msjadeli said:
Oat milk barista blend is quite tasty in coffee. I’ve been hankering for oatmeal and raisin cookies for awhile now.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
yes I’ve seen that Lisa though not tried on anything but my oat and bran breakfast
kim881 said:
Good evening, Laura. Rain has been cascading here all day and it has turned very cold. A tricky challenge, but an enjoyable one. I think a hot chocolate would go down a treat, please.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
a nice cosy corner forming with hot chocs Kim – our snow today was slowly melting but night has put a stopper on that
kim881 said:
I don’t envy you the snow, Laura. We got off lightly with heavy rain. But it is so cold – I lit the multi-fuel burner this afternoon.
Helen said:
You have tossed us (well me) a real challenge! Can’t wait to dive in. I will need ‘brain food’ ~ a salad of chopped tomatoes, chopped avocado, olive oil, balsamic, cracked pepper ~ please? If our Pub kitchen can handle it.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
I’ll speak to the chef Helen and hope the brain food helps
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I had fun writing for this, and opted to use a previous poem that I reworked to 5 line… fun, and a bit challenging.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
I too used some previous lines and found it helped – yours was so evocative
rothpoetry said:
Thank you, Laura, for hosting. You always come up with interesting challenges for us. This looks like a really good one. A hot cup of Hot Chocolate would be great on this cold day!
Laura Bloomsbury said:
you are welcome Dwight and welcome to join our hot choc huddle which seems to be growing though now I am leaving the group as its time for bed – back tomorrow to read more.
rothpoetry said:
Thank you.
The Lonely Recluse said:
Thanks for an interesting and challanging prompt today Laura. I had a lot of fun being stretched by the challanges of this one
Laura Bloomsbury said:
your book title inspiration put pure gold in that cascade
Rob Kistner said:
Thank you for hosting Laura. I went supersonic with the prompt today. Great fun! 🙂👍🏼✌🏼🫶🏼🤪
Laura Bloomsbury said:
yes and it was a playful read with an undertow we all feel
Kim of Glover Gardens said:
Wow, this was a challenge, Laura! It’s fun to give it a try, though. How about just some honey-roasted peanuts and a glass of bubbly?
Laura Bloomsbury said:
after that heartfelt letting go, you deserve the bubbly!
Kim of Glover Gardens said:
Thanks, Laura!
Rob Kistner said:
Hello all! 👍🏼🙂 Here is my variation on the Cascade. A,B,C,D,E – x,x,f,f,A – x,x,g,g,B – x,x,h,h,C – x,x,i,i,D – x,x,j,j,E You should try it, it’s fun! The added challenge is having to rhyme line 3&4 in each stanza. Just a thought.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
yes more of a challenge Rob but ‘the cascade’ should be kept to the purist structure as given by its creator Udit Bhatia. Also the repetitions/refrains are a kind of echo that can become lost with the added rhymes. You may like to try it out on OLN though without the umbrella of ‘cascade’
Laura Bloomsbury said:
though I’ve read that rhymes are optional as long as they do not bring meter with them
but when I wrote my cascade poem the occasional rhymes came as accidentals and I had to work on removing them as the refrain sounded better without - internal rhymes might do well though.
memadtwo said:
I love repeating poetry forms, so I’ll try to fit this into something I’m working on. (K)
Laura Bloomsbury said:
intrigued – will keep a look out
memadtwo said:
Tomorrow (probably) with my Year of the Dragon post. I’m working on it…
memadtwo said:
Finally got it posted on memadtwo.
pvcann said:
Now I need a whiskey 🙂 that was fun to try – thank you for introducing this.
Laura Bloomsbury said:
it brought out the best use of silence Paul so here’s a dram for you
kittysverses said:
Thank you for hosting, Laura. I enjoyed writing this one. 🙂
Priscilla King said:
It felt strange to write verse without rhythm, like singing a quarter-tone. I think I managed it.
D. Avery @shiftnshake said:
Yikes where did the time go? I wanted to give this a try and finally did. I’ve just linked it in the OLN #356 spot.
Thank you for the prompt and the time and energy it takes.