Tale Weaver – #308 – New Beginnings – 31st December

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “A Donation of Shoes” by Ted Kooser: flap, toes, lingering, flat, shoes, laces, look, dried, confused, last, closet, swim

As this year is coming to a close

Virus lingering and we’re still confused

Hope is coming with the new vaccine

At last, a new beginning for us all

Spending most of our days in the closet

No new shoes, no pedicure on our toes

Wearing masks, washing hands, dried hands

As this year is coming to a close

We still cannot flap our wings nor swim

Virtual meetings, social distancing

Just looking at the pictures of our loved ones

Virus lingering and we’re still confused

Not meeting friends, drinks being flat

Shoe laces undone, wearing pyjamas

Potter around the house, doing jigsaws

Hope is coming with the new vaccine

Declutter the house, baked some bread

Back to basics and being minimalist

Count our blessing, know our priorities

At last, a new beginning for us all*

(c) ladyleemanila 2020

Cascade, a form created by Udit Bhatia, is all about receptiveness, but in a smooth cascading way like a waterfall. The poem does not have any rhyme scheme; therefore, the layout is simple. Say the first verse has three lines. Line one of verse one becomes the last line of verse two. To follow in suit, the second line of verse one becomes the last line of verse three. The third line of verse one now becomes the last line of verse four, the last stanza of the poem. See the structure example below:

a/b/c, d/e/A, f/g/B, h/i/C

To make the Cascade an even longer poem, use more lines in verse one. For example, if verse one has 6 lines, the poem must have seven stanzas so that each line of verse one is reused as a refrain in each following stanza (a cascading effect).

For: Tale Weaver – #308 – New Beginnings – 31st December | Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie (wordpress.com), The Whirligig: Whirligig 299 (sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com)