I ripped another page from the calendar hanging on my kitchen wall. We enter the month of May with thoughts of Spring swimming around in our heads. The sun is shining bright on the days it isn’t raining. The snow vanished into distant memory. This month I plan to explore a poetry style that reminds me of a trickling waterfall. Udit Bhatia created the Cascade poem. There are no rules for rhythm or meter. The layout is simple in that the lines of the first stanza are repeated as the refrain lines in the stanzas that follow. The poem flows like this ABC, xxA, xxB xxC. Add lines to the poem longer. Thus, you are making a cascading effect with words. How hard can that be? This Cascade Poem I titled The Ghost.
Note: I will also be adding Black Out Poems as we go along the way. I plan to keep using this style until the book I’m using runs out of pages for me to play with to create these unique and visual poems. I might as well get started. I’m excited about jogging down this road.
The Ghost
The Ghost Daddy. I blinked; you went away Vanishing into the dark night Only a ghost from the past A phantom of a distant memory “Time heals all wounds,” they say And that is supposed to make it alright How long does the pain last? Daddy, I blinked; you went away. Words that were spoken in the heat of a fight Echoed through our house like a nuclear blast You left, and the sky turned grey Vanishing into the dark night Life in shadows, a harsh contrast Experience the cold wind of poverty A place of struggle with blurred sight Only a ghost from the past Your disappearance was always a mystery The answer was more than I wanted to pay With a child’s heart so steadfast A phantom of distant memory.
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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Very beautiful poem.
Oh, Molly, so sad and beautiful! 💕🙂
Thank you.