Call for Cascading Poems
Dreamweaver
By Andrea Stuart
I stepped out of your dream and cut my hope on longing.
You wore a partial smile and half of a hug on your shoulders,
while I remained naked and stiff in my sleeplessness.
The wind stole moments from our unspoken conversation,
placed trepidation where certainty once lived—
I stepped out of your dream and cut my hope on longing.
An ancient tree fell, too young, from a broken heart.
Did anyone hear it but me?
You wore a partial smile and half of a hug on your shoulders.
We were wasted on contentment, born in a fever dream—
belonging to a future that held us in promises alone.
I remain naked and stiff in my sleeplessness.
Your Invitation
We invite you to dive into the hypnotic rhythm of the cascade poem, a form that flows, repeats, and ripples like water circling back on itself. The cascade is an elegant exercise in repetition. Each line from your opening stanza becomes the closing line of each subsequent stanza, echoing throughout the poem.
There are no rules for rhyme or meter, only the gentle structure that pulls you forward. For this call, we’re seeking four stanzas of threelines each—tercet cascades—like so:
A
B
C
d
e
A
f
g
B
h
i
C
Let your repetitions churn like a tide to see what surfaces when language loops back on itself.
Submission Guidelines
Submission guidelines: Send your poem as a fully formatted Word document to UpstartEditor@gmail.com with the subject line Cascading Poem Submission. Include your name, email, phone, address, and poem title in the upper right corner of the document. Submissions will appear in the summer 2026 issue. Deadline: March 20, 2026.