Found poem: "What is a Waterfall?"

After reading Charles Bethea's Talk of the Town piece entitled "Dr. Waterfall" in the March 3, 2025 issue of The New Yorker, I felt the pull to turn it into a found poem.

What is a waterfall?

Based on “Dr. Waterfall” by Charles Bethea

Published 3/3/2025 in The New Yorker

What is a waterfall, exactly?

There are fifty different answers.

A random cascade is not a waterfall.

A little white water is not a waterfall.

To be a waterfall requires a vertical drop:

ten feet if sheer, twenty if gradual.

Cliffs make any waterfall more interesting.

This is a golden age for waterfall discovery

thanks to modern technology

and it also helps if you like to drive

and if you like to hike

and if you are not allergic to poison ivy.

Dr. Waterfall is not allergic to poison ivy.

He has found over seven hundred waterfalls

in Georgia alone

and rated them by difficulty of the hike

and beauty of the falls

Though who knows who really discovers a waterfall:

which hunter or fisherman

first followed the sound of rushing water

first encountered the cascade

and stepped behind the water

into a damp grotto?

It is hard to rate the beauty of falls

but when you find one

its essential waterfallness is clear.

You see it and take a deep breath.

You pull yourself up onto slippery rocks

along the flank of the falls

and then you feel its spray.

You become one with the waterfall.

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If you're interested in reading the original piece, you can find it here.