Form Poetry

Childhood (a Cascade)

"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)."

I hope you like it. Oh and, this was the day before my eighteenth birthday. Here goes.

___________________________________________________________

I am nearing the end of this

I wonder if I did it right

Did I miss some experience?

Tomorrow, I'll be an adult.

I took it for granted, you know?

Because I was born with it

But I don't want to leave it now that

I am nearing the end of this.

Did I cause enough trouble?

Did I make the correct amount

Of enemies? Did I laugh enough?

I wonder if I did it right.

Should I have been suspended once?

I did go through unrequited love

But no fractures, does dislocation count?

DId I miss some experience?

But nothing can be done now

There's no going back

And barely any time left

Tomorrow, I'll be an adult.