Poetry Wordfall Cascades

Posted bymarialbergPosted inInspiration, Photography, poetry, promptsTags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Meet the Bar prompt at dVerse Poets Pub invites us to write a Cascade form poem with five line stanzas. A Cascade repeats each line of the first stanza as the last lines of the following stanzas.

The Rush of a Wordfall

when we feel the flow of the words with our eyes
we re-create the actions of the poet
when we hear the force of rhythm and rhyme
they are emotions rather than people or things
tossed over rocks by a gravitational pull

There is a beholder’s share in wordfall
projecting our own feelings onto others’ choices
and combinations of symbolic representations
into orders and forms. We change the cascade
when we feel the flow of the words with our eyes

higher-order processes interact to create
the reader’s experience, more than reading
the mind generates memories, associations
definitions, interpretations, meaning
we re-create the actions of the poet

as our saccadic pursuit cascades
the physical body is in wordfall
responding to our own interpretations
pulse and breath hurry or slow
when we hear the force of rhythm and rhyme

so many unconscious processes
drive us, irrational creatures
now in a feedback loop of wordfall
reading the same lines differently
they are emotions rather than people or things

keeping one hand on the face
in a tempestuous relationship
every splash more penetrating and revealing
mercilessly seeing ourselves in every droplet
tossed over rocks by a gravitational pull

Light-forming photograph of cascading lines and shapes

*Today’s poem was inspired by Essays on Art and Science (amazon assoc. link) by Eric R. Kandel which will be coming out on March 19, 2024. I received an early reviewer copy through Net Galley. In his books he explores the neuroscience of the beholder’s share when viewing art.

Published by marialberg

I am an artist—abstract photographer, fiction writer, and poet—who loves to learn. Experience Writing is where I share my adventures and experiments. Time is precious, and I appreciate that you spend some of your time here, reading and learning along with me. I set up a buy me a coffee account, https://buymeacoffee.com/mariabergw (please copy and paste in your browser) so you can buy me a beverage to support what I do here. It will help a lot.

11 thoughts on “Poetry Wordfall Cascades”

  2. there is also much of the Ars Poetica about your cascade Maria – as the reader dips in and out of creator/voyeur. A unique take on the prompt too

    “when we feel the flow of the words with our eyes” – memorable!

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  4. I enjoyed your cascade, Maria, and the extended metaphor worked so well. I especially love the lines:

    ‘the physical body is in wordfall
    responding to our own interpretations
    pulse and breath hurry or slow
    when we hear the force of rhythm and rhyme’,

    something we know and appreciate at the Poets Pub.

    Liked by 1 person

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