Storm (Cascade)

Black clouds saturate a murky grey sky,
turning day into night.
Thunder, lightning, storm brewing.

Rain falling, blown about by
howling winds, mimicking emotions as
black clouds saturate a murky grey sky.

Thoughts assault the psyche,
bringing darkness to a soul,
turning day into night.

No rainbows or pots of gold,
only sadness flooding the landscape.
Thunder, lightning, storm brewing.

Copyright © 2010 Sylvia All Rights Reserved

(Winner of Site Contest in Dark & Fantasy, Other Dark Poems)
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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).