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 titles Scrutinised the Familiar.
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. Also in this particular poem I feel scrutinised should be spelled scrutinized, but I didn’t want to move away from the original text.
Scrutinised the Familiar Desperate to understand Carnivorous instincts White-hot With smoke and magnesium Without interruption I don’t have a choice.” “Look at it again.” Scrutinised the familiar. The wedding guests Flagstones and rose bushes Committee of stones Gloved hands Baby in a white cap Flapping dresses The features were lost Watching Covetous
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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