Interesting note, my dashboard tells me this is my 100th post! …Well, that’s it, celebration over, wasn’t that fun? 😀
Today’s poem is a cinquain (sing-kayn I’m told though it’s harder to get myself to pronounce it that way than sin-kwayn), a rhythm-first poem developed in the last hundred- (double checks myself)- over a hundred years ago! Unlike haikus, cinquains count by stress, not by syllable. American cinquains, though, count both stress and syllable. As the name might lead you to guess, it has five lines. Let’s try it out!
The Form
A strike-
Then two quick kicks,
The stances flow. This unity
Of mind and frame becomes, itself,
An art.
Ok now I’m frustrated. The lines are supposed to build thusly- Stresses: 1, 2, 3, 4, then 1; Syllables: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2. Right now I have stresses 1, 2, 4, 4, 1 and syllables 2, 4, 8, 8, 2. But I like the words where and how they are! Ugh. As a poem, it’s fine, but I’m trying to make a cinquain, not just a poem. Fixing time.
Strike! Then
Kicks to follow
Stance’s guides. Begin
To let the body meld with mind-
An art.
Well that one follows the structure but I like the first better. C’est la vie. I could probably edge them closer but I said no editing! Not at the present. This one I only edited because I knew I had to if I wanted to get the form but I didn’t want to lose the first poem.
Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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I’m enjoying learning about the different styles of poetry this month.
I like how the second one emphasizes the words differently.
Multiple tries is still nice, and I like both in different ways. Wise words.
Both good – I tend towards the first.
(and I was taught they are sin-kayn poems 🙂