WD Poetic Form Challenge: Cascade Poem Winner

These challenges always surprise me with how poets attack the forms. They also surprise me with the quality of the writing. If you haven't yet, you should check out the entries for the cascade poem challenge; some great writing with a fairly relaxed poetic form.

Click here to read all the entries in the Comments.

The winner of the cascade poem challenge is Marian O'Brien Paul with her masterful poem "The Cycle of Seasons: Discovered." Congratulations, Marian!

Here's Marian's winning poem:

The Cycle of Seasons: Discovered, by Marian O'Brien Paul

A child, flinging wide the screen door,
sifts the early morning air, separating
apple blossom scent from fragrant pear.

Suddenly aware the perfume is familiar,
sifting memory for where she met it before--
this child, flinging wide the screen door

drifts back through winter frost and lost
tree leaves past summer's lush foliage,
sifting the early morning air, separating

the bouquet of fruit blossom-thick air,
reliving last year when she first divided
apple blossom scent from fragrant pear.

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Here's the complete Top 10 list:

Congratulations to everyone who made the Top 10 list. With each challenge, I notice an increase in the quality of competition. It gets harder and harder to make that list. So great job!

That said, thank you to everyone who participated! I'm not going to give names, but there were several poets who came very close to cracking the Top 10--both the usual suspects and some new names. Be sure to watch this month (and hopefully this week) for the next WD Poetic Form Challenge.

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Marian's winning poem is slated to appear in the Poetic Asides column in the February 2011 issue of Writer's Digest. To learn more about this great magazine for writers, click here.