Kick the Poetry Can’ts #28
I usually introduce this form early on in my teaching sessions and I just realized I missed it. It’s called a cinquain, which like haiku, is a counted syllable form of poetry. A cinquain is 5 lines long and the syllable counts are as follows:
Line 1 = 2
Line 2 = 4
Line 3 = 6
Line 4 = 8
Line 5 = 2
Sometimes a cinquain helps me develop an idea further and it turns into a longer poem. Sometimes it stays as it is. As always, the challenge of finding the right words to convey what I want to say in a constrained form often take me places I didn’t expect to go.
Here’s my cinquain.
airdance
ballerina
twist twirl hover dip dive
glidinggreen gracefulness
awestruck
–Susan Taylor Brown, all rights reserved
Your turn
Original art by Susan Taylor Brown
LIFE
Hard life
So it begins
Struggle after struggle
Determination always wins
Victory !
- Anne McKenna
A good positive one from you, Anne. I like it. Determination WILL always win though I know it is easier some days than it is others.
Cinquains are so much fun. Here’s one that I really like, but the editor where I submitted it, not so much.
- ellie
Daffodils
Green leaves
s t r e t c h up through late
winter snow. Yellow heads
blink open bright eyes, nodding yes,
it’s spring.
Sorry I missed this, ellie. Still have issues with understanding the way some things work here in WordPress.
I love this cinquain. Especially,
Yellow heads
blink open bright eyes, nodding yes,
Silly old editor. What was he/she thinking?