It's Still Life

A Cadralor Poem from Magnetic Word Tiles

I.
I recall it as
a wind
or a shine
like a dream language
like the will of sky.

II.
I recall
flat bottom clouds
downy grey and pouting,
and wearing tall
white hats.

III.
I recall it as
a scent of snapping
air, and it seemed
too full and
ready to burst.

IV.
I recall learning
that angels live on clouds,
and God spoke
a language carried
on the wind.

V.
I recall it as
a dream,
a prayer
from those clouds
sat on blue shoulders.

Magnetic Poetry Tiles are at http://magneticpoetryplayonline.com/original/. Photo by Luca on Unsplash. ©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting on Twitter

The cadralor is a poem of 5, unrelated, numbered stanzaic images, each of which can stand alone as a poem, is fewer than 10 lines, and ideally constrains all stanzas to the same number of lines. Imagery is crucial to cadralore: each stanza should be a whole, imagist poem, almost like a scene from a film, or a photograph. The fifth stanza acts as the crucible, alchemically pulling the unrelated stanzas together into a love poem. By “love poem,” we mean that your fifth stanza illuminates a gleaming thread that runs obliquely through the unrelated stanzas and answers the compelling question: “For what do you yearn?”