Books Launch

Books Launch

I have just published two small collections of my poetry.  The first is Shorter Tanka Journeys.  The book contains fourteen short Tanka Sequences.  The tanka were each written as individual poems and can stand alone.  I then gathered them by topic to form sequences.  The topics include love, social commentary, nature, and old age.

Shorter Tanka Journeys

ISBN: 9781508620716

117 pages

$8.00

The second book is Shorter Cinquain Journeys.  It is a small collection of twelve Cinquain Sequences.  Like the tanka in Shorter Tanka Journeys, each cinquain was written as a stand-alone poem and subsequently gathered together on the basis of their shared topic.  The topics are similar to those found in STJ.  This book is also written to express my gratitude for this form of poetry which is now 100 years old.  The cinquain is the first syllabic form that has emerged in an English language context and the form has attracted a lot of poets who have used the form for the full range of poetic expression. 

Shorter Cinquain Journeys

ISBN: 9781508800071

114 pages

$8.00

These two books join my previous collection, Shorter Haiku Journeys.  In each case the ‘shorter journeys’ refers to previous books where I published sequences of these forms that were much longer than those found in the Shorter series of books.  In White Roses the haiku sequences are about 100.  In Tanka River the sequences, again, are about 100 tanka.  And in Lanterne Light there is a 100+ cinquain sequence.  Because the sequences in the Shorter Journeys books are briefer I call them ‘shorter journeys’.

All of these books are available at Amazon or through your local bookstore.

Some Resources for the Cinquain

Some Resources for the Cinquain

2015 is the hundredth anniversary of the American Cinquain.  This is the first syllabic form created by a native English speaker.  It was created by the poet Adelaide Crapsey and first appeared in print in 1915 in a posthumously published collection of her poetry.  Since then the Cinquain has slowly spread and there are many poets who have spent time and energy on this form consisting of five lines with the syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2.

From 200 to 2007 there was a magazine devoted to the Cinquain.  It was called ‘Amaze’, which is the title of one of Adelaide’s Cinquain.  There were three people involved in ‘Amaze’.  Deborah Kolodji was a co-founder and editor of the Journal.  Lisa Cohen was another of the co-founders and a regular contributor.  Finally, Denis Garrison was a third co-founder and had the title ‘Editor Emeritus’.  Garrison contributed poems, articles, and reviews.  Garrison was a prolific editor for about a decade.  He also edited and published ‘Modern English Tanka’, a magazine that did a great deal to bring this form to the attention of many poets.

‘Amaze’ was a quarterly journal.  In its last two years, 2006 and 2007, it moved online, giving up the quarterly printed magazine.  At the end of the year Kolodji published all four issues in book format: Amaze: The Cinquain Journal 2006 Annual, and Amaze: The Cinquain Journal 2007 Annual.  Both of these are available from lulu.com at a reasonable price.

For those who are interested in the Cinquain and how various poets have used the form I highly recommend these two publications.  The bulk of the material consists of Cinquain poems.  Most of the Cinquains are written in the standard form of 2-4-6-8-2.  But there are also variations on the form including Cinquain Sequences, reverse Cinquain (2-8-6-4-2), and other permutations. 

The two volumes contain a wealth of excellent Cinquain by numerous poets.  It is remarkable how consistently high the quality is. 

Both volumes also contain articles about the history of the Cinquain, its esthetic, the influence of Japanese forms on the development of the Cinquain, essays on the prosody of the Cinquain, and reviews of books and poets that are Cinquain centered.  This information is rewarding and adds depth to our understanding of this form.  

It would be a wonderful thing if the other years could also be turned into publications like the 2006 and 2007 Annuals.  I suspect, though, that such a project would be very time consuming.  Fortunately, the earlier issues of Amaze are archived online so that you can access them as well.  You can find them at:

http://www.amaze-cinquain.com/

If you have an interest in the Cinquain, in syllabic forms in English, or want to read some really excellent short form poetry, I recommend getting these two annuals.  Go to lulu.com and search for the following:

Amaze: The Cinquain Journal 2006 Annual

ISSN: 1935-8849

http://www.lulu.com/shop/amaze-the-cinquain-journal/amaze-the-cinquain-journal-2006-annual/paperback/product-814164.html

$14.92

Amaze: The Cinquain Journal 2007 Annual

ISSN: 1935-8849

http://www.lulu.com/shop/amaze-the-cinquain-journal/amaze-the-cinquain-journal-2007-annual/paperback/product-3695146.html

$14.97

Adelaide Crapsey Day -- 100 Years

Today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Adelaide Crapsey.  She passed away on October 8, 1914.  Crapsey is the poet who created that sparkling form, the Cinquain.  The Cinquain has become a widely taught and practiced syllabic form in the English language.  To celebrate this anniversary I am posting a piece I wrote for a local online community forum.  This forum contains an active poetry section and I have, at times, posted poems there, as well as contributing to discussions.  The post is an overall appreciation of syllabic forms in English poetry; Crapsey is highlighted as having a significance in the slow dissemination of that approach among English language poets.  

Syllabics: An Appreciation

The 20^th century saw many experiments in the world of English language poetry.  Free verse took off, while at the same time the traditional, metric, approach to poetry continued among a large number of poets and especially song-writers.  Another, much smaller, approach to English language poetry also emerged in the 20^th century: the use of a syllabic approach and the emergence of short syllabic forms.

Traditional English poetry is metric, counting the stresses of a line.  This is the approach used by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Browning, Millay, Frost, countless poets and songwriters down through the centuries.  The free verse approach does not use counting as a method for constructing a line: I see the ‘free’ of ‘free verse’ as referring to ‘free from counting’. 

The syllabic approach ignores stress and poetic feet.  Instead, the syllabic approach counts only the syllables of a line.  The difference can feel subtle, but there is a qualitative difference in the two approaches which the ear can hear.  The syllabic approach is the standard poetic practice in a number of cultures such as France, Japan, China, and Wales.  But it is new for English language poetry.  I think of the syllabic approach as dating to the early 20^th century.  In particular, I think Adelaide Crapsey played a significant role in its emergence because she was the first poet to create a form, the Cinquain, which relied on counting syllables.  Crapsey’s Cinquain is shaped by counting the syllables of each line: 2-4-6-8-2, for a total of 22 syllables.  It is interesting to observe the development of the form in Crapsey’s own thought.  It appears that at first she thought of the Cinquain as a metric form with the lines defined as 1 beat, 2 beats, 3 beats, 4 beats, and one beat.  But she soon shifted to a syllabic presentation and today it is taught as a syllabic form.  For this reason I think of Crapsey as marking a transition to a possible syllabic approach to English language verse.  If I had to choose a date for syllabics entering English language poetry I would choose 1915, the date her small collection of poetry was posthumously published which included a significant number of Cinqauin.  That makes syllabics in English just 100 years old.

Also influential in the emergence of a syllabic approach was the adoption of haiku as a form for English language poets.  In the transmission of haiku from Japan to the U.S. different schemes were used to map the haiku form onto the English language.  For this reason you will find different approaches used by different haiku poets and organizations.  One group chose to map the Japanese count of 5-7-5 onto the English syllable so that to construct an English haiku you have three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.  This is the approach used by Richard Wright, Mary Joe Salter, Haydn Carruth, James Hackett, Edith Shiffert, Richard Wilbur and many others; it is the approach also used by what I call ‘popular haiku’.  The widespread absorption of a 5-7-5 form has done a great deal to implant the legitimacy of a syllabic approach to English language poetry.

Elizabeth Daryush (who, in my opinion, is unjustly neglected these days) also took a syllabic approach to English language poetry.  She was influenced by her father, Robert Bridges, an English poet laureate who preferred syllabic construction, and by Persian poetry, especially Hafez.  Daryush was the first to apply syllabics to traditional English forms such as the sonnet.

Today a syllabic approach to poetry still remains a small, but growing, approach to English language verse.  In the late 20^th century a number of poets created syllabic forms that have developed followings.  These include the Fibonacci, based on the mathematical Fibonacci Sequence; the Tetractys, a five line form of 1-2-3-4-10; the Lanterne, another five-line form of 1-2-3-4-1; the Rictameter, a nine-line form of 2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2; and many others.  I really enjoy watching how these forms are being presented and picked up by others.  Online poetry forums have facilitated the presentation and spread of these forms.  Some of these forms are ephemeral; but some have developed significant followings.  A few, like the Fibonacci and the Syllabic Haiku, have their own journals and forums.

I have become fond of these forms.  I think what I like about these forms is that it brings out a craft approach to poetry.  The basic idea is that you shape words to a pre-existing template, which in the case of syllabic poetry is the syllable and line count of the form.  I think it resembles a potter making a cup.  All cups have a similar form, a shape that allows them to hold liquid.  But within that common shape infinite variation is possible.  Similarly, all Cinquain share a common syllabic shape, but within that shape infinite variation is possible.

I also like the sense of being part of a poetic community; that is to say when I compose in a syllabic form I feel that I am connecting with others who have written in the same form.  I like that sense of connection

I think of a syllabic approach to English language poetry as a ‘third way’; I mean that it is neither free verse nor metrical verse.  Because syllabic poetry does not count stresses it is non-traditional.  The result is that syllabic poetry often has a more conversational quality to it than traditional verse.  Because syllabic poetry is shaped by counting, it differs from free verse.  Syllabic poetry in English is ‘formal’, but it is non-traditional in its approach to form: hence I think of syllabics as a ‘third way’.

Personally, I started out writing free verse.  But I’m the kind of person who needs a formal structure in order to maintain focus.  I find that when I write free verse my poetry tends to wander and quickly become obscure.  This isn’t true for everyone, but it is an aspect of my own personality.  An imposed frame helps me in being more articulate and communicative.  For this reason I have, over the years, become more and more immersed in the syllabic forms that have so recently emerged in English language poetry.  I find that each form has its own tone, or ‘meaning’ (‘meaning’ isn’t exactly the right word, but it is in that direction).  The form itself embodies a certain feeling.  The Cinquain, for example, with its closing 2-syllable line, has a strong sense of closure and cadence.  In contrast, the Fibonacci (with a syllable count of 1-1-2-3-5-8, etc.) opens up and has the feeling that it could continue; it doesn’t have that same sense of closure that the Cinquain has.  I have similar observations for the other syllabic forms; these are subjective, but also meaningful.

These syllabic forms are fun and, at the same time, challenging.  Like a potter shaping clay, or a baker shaping flour, or a gardener cultivating plants, the syllabic poet grows poems in the garden of various forms. On this upcoming 100^th anniversary of syllabics in English language poetry, I am optimistic for the future of these syllabic forms and the syllabic approach in general.

Untitled

Discourse
Conversation
A grove of ancient oaks
Like a dream that recently spoke
Night song

Cinquain Day for 2013

Cinquain Day for 2013

Good Morning:

Today is Cinquain Day, referring to what is also called the ‘Crapsey Cinquain’ or, sometimes, the ‘American Cinquain’.  It is a form created by Adelaide Crapsey early in the 20^th century.  It is a five-line form with the syllable count as follows: 2-4-6-8-2, for a total of 22 syllables.

It is an attractive form.  Personally, I find it to be a greater challenge than the more well-known, and more widely dispersed, syllabic haiku.  For me, the last line, of 2 syllables, carries a lot of weight; if that last line is not successful, it undermines the entire poem.

But it is also a rewarding form to write in.  And there exists now a substantial quantity of Cinquain poetry.  As a form, it appears to have found its modest place in the world of English language verse.

For those interested in this form I would like to recommend two publications: the anthologies produced by Amaze magazine for the years 2006 and 2007.  Amaze was a journal devoted to the Cinquain which published from, I believe, 2002 or 2001, through 2007.  It was an excellent publication and I, for one, was disappointed to see it go into hiatus.  But I understand how publishing a poetry magazine can be very time consuming.  And the legacy left by this magazine is fruitful.

In 2006 and 2007 the editor, Deborah Kolodji, gathered the material for those years into these two anthologies.  The anthologies begin with the Cinquain published that year.  Amaze published four times a year and the Cinquain are gathered according to the issue, and then within each alphabetically by author.  After the Cinquain are gathered articles, including book reviews, the history of the Cinquain, and other topics.  These articles are uniformly well-written and informative.

I have read these two anthologies several times.  The Cinquain in the anthologies show a variety of approaches to the form.  Taken together for the aspiring Cinquain poet they offer inspiration and a sense of how the syllabic structure of the Cinquain is treated. 

So if you find yourself attracted to this little jewel of a form, I recommend that you get both of these anthologies.  They are available from lulu.com

Amaze: The Cinquain Journal

2006 Annual

ISSN: 1935-8849

Amaze: The Cinquain Journal

2007 Annual

ISSN: 1935-8849

Available at www.lulu.com

To find these two volumes at lulu, put the word ‘Amaze’ in the ‘search’ function at the top of the page.  The two anthologies will appear five or six items down when the search is done.

Untitled

Old age
Finger-snap days
I'd like to think I'm wise
Trying to remember brings sighs
Dusk haze

Summerscape

Blackbirds
In the hot air
Under the cloudless glare
A cafe that is filled with nerds
Fast words

Crossing the Valley of Dusk

Mid-June
Late afternoon
No one is in the store
The sky will turn into night soon
Moon roar

Another Ocean

Mint tea
At the cafe
I could spend the whole day
Listening to what people say --
Word sea

Paradox

Science
Technology
Offer us a promise
Of an always better future --
Bombs fall

Untitled

First Day
Sunday morning
Pray'r slips into silence
Another world, another way --
Dawn song

A Contemplation

Ashes
Mountain ranges
Lightning strikes the forest
I've heard that ev'rything changes
Novas

On Definitions, Recipes, and Rules

On Definitions, Recipes, and Rules

When looking at a particular syllabic form we work with a group of characteristics.  For example, the Tetractys form has the following characteristics:

1.         Five lines

2.         Syllable count for each line is determined: 1-2-3-4-10

            Alternatively, you could look at this as five distinct characteristics:

2.1       Line 1 has one syllable

2.2       Line 2 has two syllables

2.3       Line 3 has three syllables

2.4       Line 4 has four syllables

2.5       Line 5 has 10 syllables

3.         Line 1 should not consist of the articles ‘the’ or ‘a’

            This characteristic was put forth by the originator.

4.         There is a title

Now, how do we relate to this group of characteristics?  There are several approaches.

The first approach is that they are rules in the sense of rules of a game.  From this perspective if you compose a poem and the poem strays from even one of these characteristics, then you have not composed a Tetractys.  Rules of a game are determinative in the sense that if you violate the rules you are cheating.  For example, if we are playing chess and I move a pawn diagonally, that would be cheating.  It would not be considered an ‘alternative’ play.  It would simply be wrong.  If we view the characteristics of a poetic form in this way then we would conclude that a Tetractys that differs from the listed form was simply not a Tetractys, in the same way that if I make a move in chess that is outside of the rules of play I am no longer actually playing chess.

A second way of looking at the characteristics of a form is to regard them as a definition of the form.  Let’s use as an example a traditional listing of Haiku characteristics:

1.         A three line poem

2.1       Line 1 has five syllables

2.2       Line 2 has seven syllables

2.3       Line 3 has five syllables

3.         Somewhere in the poem will be a seasonal reference

4.         There is no title

This is a good summary of a traditional view of Haiku.  If you take this last as definitive, as a definition, then if you come across a Haiku that deviates from this list you will conclude that it is not a ‘real’ Haiku.  It is similar to coming across a statue of a rabbit and concluding that it is not a ‘real’ rabbit.  It may have some of the characteristics of a rabbit, but in essence it is not a rabbit because it lacks life and other characteristics, such as motion.  It is a representation of a rabbit, but it lacks ‘rabbitness’.  Similarly, a traditional view of Haiku might view a three line poem in 5-7-5, but that does not have a seasonal reference, as lacking in ‘haikuness’; the essence of Haiku is simply not there.

A third way of looking at the characteristics of a form is that they are a recipe for generating the form.  From this perspective the characteristics are ingredients which, combined, produce the form in question.  Let’s take the Cinquain:

1.         A five line poem

2.1       Line 1 has two syllables

2.2       Line 2 has four syllables

2.3       Line 3 has six syllables

2.4       Line 4 has eight syllables

2.5       Line 5 has two syllables

3.         There is a title

From the perspective of a recipe the idea is to combine all these ‘ingredients’ and by so doing you will produce a Cinquain.  It may or may not be a good Cinquain, but if it has all of these characteristics it will be considered a Cinquain.

The recipe model allows for deviations from the given recipe.  For example, if I am making bread pudding and the recipe calls for cinnamon, but I have run out, I might add some other seasoning, or just drop the cinnamon.  But I would still consider it to be bread pudding.  The recipe model is not based on the idea of essence, nor does the recipe model function in the same way as rules do.  It is not cheating to make a substitution in a recipe for bread pudding.  I might make a substitution out of necessity or out of choice, but in either case it is simply a variation on the recipe.

Similarly, if I look at the characteristics of a given syllabic form as ingredients in a recipe, that allows for substitutions.  In Haiku this would allow for non-seasonal Haiku, or for a line that is longer or shorter than the recipe.  For the Cinquain it might allow for a concluding line that is one syllable, or three syllables; these would be two variations on the recipe.  From the perspective of a recipe I would not be cheating.  And from the perspective of a recipe I would not be moving away from the ‘essence’ of the form because a recipe is not a matter of essences.  A recipe is a matter of outlining a procedure; a recipe is craft oriented rather than essence oriented.

Personally, I have found the recipe model to be rewarding.  Though recipes allow for changes and deviations from the listed ingredients, I also find myself realizing that there is a lot of inherited wisdom in a recipe.  It is good to take the recipe seriously because the recipe is the distilled inheritance of many practitioners’ understanding. 

Using a recipe based view of syllabic form allows for a relaxed response when one runs across the occasional Haiku by Basho that deviates, plus or minus, from the standard count.  It allows for variations on the form as sub-categories that can take on their own life.

Here’s an example of what I mean from the world of tea.  One of the world’s favorite black teas is Earl Grey.  The recipe for Earl Grey is:

1.         A blend of black tea

2.         Bergamot oil

If these two ingredients are present, you have Earl Grey.

But over time people have creatively engaged with Early Grey and come up with the following variations:

Lady Grey

1.         A blend of black tea

2.         Bergamot oil

3.         Lavender

Earl Grey Green

1.         A green tea

2.         Bergamot oil

London Fog

1.         A blend of black tea

2.         Bergamot oil

3.         Rose

4.         Cream

Victorian Earl Grey

1.         A blend of black tea

2.         Bergamot oil

4.         Lemon oil

5.         Cornflower

And there are many other variations as well.

Something similar has happened to the Sonnet.  Different rhyme schemes have defined sub-categories of the Sonnet so you have Shakespearean, Petrarchan, Spencerian, Terza Rima, etc.  Each of these sub-categories can then engender further variations.

Using the model of a recipe, we can see what has happened to Haiku in the west.  Just as Earl Grey Tea has developed many offshoots, so Haiku in the west has developed many variations.  Syllabic Haiku is a variation from the tradition in that it drops the seasonal reference as a necessary, though often cultivated, ingredient in the list.  Free Verse Haiku has kept the three line ingredient (for the most part), but dropped the syllable count and seasonal reference ingredients.  Just as the different types of Earl Grey are all legitimate variations, so also the different types of Haiku are all legitimate expressions of the poetic impulse.  But they are different; just as Early Grey Green is different from the Earl Grey types that use a black tea base.  They taste different and they appeal to different types of people.  So also the different types of Haiku ‘taste’ different and will appeal to different types of poetic sensibility.

From the perspective of a recipe, an interesting question is ‘how far can one go in changing the ingredients before you are now creating something else’?  I don’t think there is a way to answer this question.  I think one has to rely more on a sense of feeling.

When I was working my way through graduate school I worked as a waiter at a creperie, a restaurant that specialized in many kinds of crepe (I think it was called ‘The Magic Pan’).  One day I was taking an order and the customer ordered the ‘chicken crepe’ lunch from the list.  Then the customer asked if they could substitute the ‘crab crepe for the chicken crepe and the spinach salad for the tossed salad’.  You see the ‘crab crepe lunch’ was more expensive.  So the customer wanted the chicken crepe price but a crab crepe lunch.  As politely as I could I declined the substitutions and the customer ordered something else.

The point of the story is that when we make substitutions in a recipe, or any kind of aggregate, there comes a point where we are constrained to think that we have gone beyond the parameters of the ‘form’; whatever it might be.  But this sense of having gone beyond is going to be different for different people.  I don’t know of an objective way to make this determination; again I think it is more feeling based.

For example, if someone offered me ‘Earl Grey’, but it did not have bergamot oil, I would be inclined to think it wasn’t ‘really’ Earl Grey.  But suppose it contained other citrus oils (Bergamot is a citrus and the oil of Bergamot is what is used in Earl Grey).  Some might consider using a combination of different citrus oils to be ‘close enough’ to Earl Grey to qualify as a type of Earl Grey.  It might be called ‘Earl Grey Orange’, for example.  Again, I do not know of any objective way of making this kind of determination and the two of us would likely have to agree to disagree about what constitutes ‘genuine’ Earl Grey.

But to return to poetic forms; my sense is that many of the discussions about poetic form, especially those surrounding Haiku, are essence based.  I fall into that view myself at times even though I strongly incline towards a recipe view of poetic form.  In part this is derived from Japanese views of essence (Japanese: honi).  This view of essence is not often explicitly touched on, but it lies behind many of the presentations of formal Japanese verse.  I understand this view; it makes sense.  But it also leads to unnecessary rancor.  A recipe view undermines the feeling that everyone must compose according to the same ingredients.  There is no reason, for example, why syllabic and free verse Haiku cannot live side by side.  They use different recipes, for sure, but that should be OK. 

Philosophically, the three views of form (rule based, essence based, and recipe based) probably appeal to different types of people.  And whether or not an individual has one or the other view is likely to be related to how that individual views other areas in their life.  The three views reflect deeply held metaphysical positions that are not often consciously examined.  In addition, I do not think it is possible to make a final determination as to which approach is superior.  Essence and rule based approaches have the virtue of continuity and are more likely to preserve tradition and pass it on to the next generation.  A recipe based approach can be more innovative and allows for more creativity in terms of the characteristics themselves; though essence and rule based approaches can be just as creative.  And perhaps, in the end, they are not mutually exclusive.  Perhaps they are more like on a continuum.  I have noticed that at different times in my life I have been more drawn to an essence based view, while at other times more drawn to a recipe based view. 

But it is good to take a look at how one relates to these characteristics.  By becoming consciously aware of how we relate to them we can communicate more clearly about our own view and comprehend more accurately those who take a different approach.  This increases our understanding of each other and I think that is a good thing.

Grandmother of Form: Adelaide Crapsey Day 2012

Grandmother of Form

Today is Adelaide Crapsey day, the anniversary of her passing.  I think of Crapsey as the Grandmother of English Syllabic Verse.  Her meticulous research into English prosody, her analyses of the syllabic structure of English, laid a foundation from which she was able to intuit a different approach to writing English poetry.  Because her life was so short (September 9, 1878 to October 8, 1914) she was not able to complete her projects.  But she was able to lay the foundation for a syllabic approach to English poetry.  Simply by creating a syllabic form, the Cinquain, Crapsey demonstrated the efficacy of English syllabic verse.

At the time Crapsey was writing and doing research metrical poetry still dominated.  The avant-garde was, however, beginning to emerge and ‘verse libre’ was making significant inroads.  But Crapsey steered a course that offered a different alternative; neither a traditional metrical one nor one grounded in free verse.  Evidently this was not easy for her to do.  The research she did into English prosody must have been very time consuming: she literally counted all of the one and two syllable words in works like ‘Paradise Lost’ and this was long before the use of computers or other technological assists.  In other words, she counted them all by hand. 

Why did she do this?  My sense is that she had an intuition that the predominance of one and two syllable words in English was significant for English language prosody.  But she needed to feel a strong foundation for this intuition.  The predominance of these short words tilts English towards a syllabic approach in the same way that a language like Chinese, consisting of one-count words, single syllables, lends itself to a syllabic approach to poetry.

There are other poets who made significant contributions towards a syllabic approach such as Dylan Thomas and Marianne Moore.  But neither of these poets created a specific English syllabic form, a form that others could use.  This is why I consider Crapsey to be the most significant of the early English syllabic poets, because she saw the possibility of a specific syllabic form for the English language.  This, I believe, is a crucial step in establishing English syllabic verse.

So let’s take a moment to express our gratitude to Adelaide, the Mother of Form.

Cinquain Day 2012

Cinquain Day 2012

Good Morning:

Today is Cinquain Day; a day set aside to express our appreciation for the Cinquain.  This form is also known as the Crapsey Cinquain or the American Cinquain.  It is the creation of the poet Adelaide Crapsey, 1878 – 1914.

The Cinquain is a five-line form: 2-4-6-8-2, for a total of 22 syllables.  It is the first syllabic form that I know of created in an English language context.  My own experience with the form is that it is a difficult form to master.  It is the final 2-syllable line that often vexes the poet.  It is crucial to get that last line just right.  But when it is done right the Cinquain has a strong sense of closure and cadence; that 2-syllable ending can feel like a perfect frame around a picture, or the final brushstroke of a painting.

The Cinquain has developed a small, but loyal, following.  There are forums for this form, poets who specialize in it, and it seems to have found its way into the school curriculum.  Some teachers I know have told me that in grade school when they teach a poetry unit to young students the Cinquain is one of the forms that they use.

So on this day let’s acknowledge our appreciation for this jewel of a form.  You might read some Cinquain, or perhaps compose one of your own.  Give it a try; you’ll find it is a challenge and a delight.

Equanimity

Voting
Ev'ry four years
We get agitated.
The well of time is very deep --
Fossils
Found in a field
That once was a mountain
That overlooked a fern forest
Now sand

Synchronicity

Thin mist
August morning
Walking the rural road
As I pass a neighbor's garden
Clouds part

Unproductive

August
The sky is clear
I'm a slacker today
An on-again-off-again wind
Dusk falls

Cosmos Contemplation

New moon
The starscape sky
My place in the cosmos
A grain of sand by the ocean
Ebb tide

Quaker Meeting

First Day
Gathered Silence
An hour of shared stillness
Our hearts open to the presence
Of God