"For Everything There is a Season"

dVerse - MTB: Imagism in 5

The Cadralor

Not a form I am familiar with, the Cadralor is an invented form named for its inventors, Lori Howe and Christopher Cadra. 

* 5 numbered stanzas

* choose 3-10 lines per stanza (but keep same chosen stanza length throughout)

* each stanza stands alone as an imagist poem (just the obliquest of connections)

* 5th stanza pulls the 4 unrelated stanzas together into a poem of love, of yearning

* rhymes and syllabic meter are NOT wanted

I

I don’t go to the far back of my yard anymore.

It’s dead; the grass, onions, parsley, gone.

I let it die; its prior beauty gone, now crunchy underfoot,

II

The wind blew over the fence, such as it was.

I left it there, nothing to fence in, or out, except

the persistent raccoons that straddle the top boards at dawn.

III

Geese honk overhead on their way south,

the stragglers louder as they strive to catch up

to the lopsided Vs of their fellow migrants.

IV

Autumn leaves drift down, carpeting the roadways,

flying up again as cars speed by.

Up and down, up and down, caught in a whirlwind of exhaust.

V

As our winter approaches, will we wish

to rewind time?   Return to spring to start afresh,

or accept this as our lot assigned?

©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved