Poetry for Today - Cinqku

The American analogue to haiku, the Cinque is minimalist in nature with 17 syllables strictly arranged in five short lines of 2, 3, 4, 6,  and 2 syllables respectively. The last line may circle around to the first or may offer a contrast. They are written in haiku- style free diction and syntax with no metrical requirement; a turn can be used that may be similar to kireji in haiku or cinquain. Unlike haiku, they are not specifically nature or season-based and all subject matter is acceptable. Unless they are part of a series, they are left untitled and the first line becomes the reference point.

I offer you my cinque to brighten a cloudy day:

sunrise
golden shafts
glazing mountains
kissing flowers open
morning

Margaret V Doran

Poetry for Today: Cinquains

The Cinquain is a fairly modern form (poetically speaking) that holds to a strict word and syllable count. Most that you see as examples are faithful to the syllable count but vary from the word count, particularly in the third line. I've tried to keep both. It also follows specific guidelines for what each line presents: Title, Description, Action, Feeling, End. There's also an old form and a contemporary form, but I won't get into that.

These are the Cinquains I wrote yesterday. I'd like to mention that for the "Haiti" cinquain, I want to finish with cholera, but it's three syllables and will not work. I may update it and slide it into a contemporary heading because the word is so much MORE than the generic ending it has now. More impact. More real. That's why contemporary poetry allows deviations; it lets the poetry itself speak rather than be so tightly confined to form that the form is more important than the words. See if you think it improves rather than detracts:

Iraq
fighting factions
killing brothers, soldiers
anguish, dying, fearful, crying
deathbed

Haiti
simple people
floods devastate, destroy
homeless, thirsty, hopeless, helpless
disease

Driving
school ahead
following other cars
outrage, anger, frustration, tears
ticket

Haiti (contemporary)
simple people
floods devastate, destroy
homeless, thirsty, hopeless, helpless
cholera

Poetry from the Past - Couplets

I decided to get back to work on my book so I've been writing to very specific poetic forms. I started work on a Classicism piece but it turned into something completely different. Classicism is to focus on the beauty, writings, ideals, and architecture of classical Greece and Rome. They are written in couplets. Although not stipulated as to meter, in reading examples, I assume that they are (were?) usually written in either iambic pentameter or trochaic pentameter.

I was thinking about the early women of the Christian Church, many of whom were locked into a slavery of sorts within middle-eastern cultures. They accepted Christianity within the framework of a society that had no respect for women. They did not own property, could not travel independently, BELONGED to their husbands as chattel and had no control over their lives. To regain self-respect and self-control, the most radical assumed the role of men, cutting their hair and dressing as men in order to leave society completely. Many chose to live out their lives in caves in the dessert where they spent their time worshiping God and living austere lives of deprivation.

Although this may be a rather romantic notion, the reality was anything but romantic. And there was nothing particularly beautiful about it, either, yet they turned away from their societies, their parents, their forced marriages to find peace and freedom. A high price to pay. I have written God to be gender-neutral and for these women, they would claim that such isolation freed them to actually experience the beauty of God. This has not gone through the revision process since it's "hot off the pen," but that will happen in the future so one can expect changes.

Devotion

     Margaret V. Doran 10-23-2010

And I, to commune solely with my God,

Must leave the paths that other women trod

Cast off the clothing other women wear

Unbind, cut off my long and flowing hair

Embrace the habits of monastic men

Barefoot, bereft, and seeking; only then

Embark upon a course of solitude

With God alone to guide my attitude

Devote myself to worship and to prayer

My God shall create joy out of despair

The Holy will of God shall be my stay

My sustenance and comfort day by day

Deprived of worldly trappings, binds and deeds

I’m free to follow God where e’er God leads.