Cinquain Fragments
I am currently working on a poem inspired by a couple of my own (sometimes slightly tongue-in-cheek) posts in the writelink forums' cinquain game. So I thought I'd collect some of my other cinquains together here as snippets that I may one day develop further.
Fragments
Scars. Him,
her and the bright
colours that were once our
life. Tattos, scabs healing. Ink fades,
not pain.
Floating
over the dead
daffodils, Wordsworth's ghost
sighed. Alas, the dreadful global
warming!
Bare bones
of dead loves bear
no ill will. But when flesh
lies still warm on the carcass, new
loves die.
We hope,
like seeds searching
sunlight, reaching for what
we cannot touch but still believe
exists.
Comments, Pingbacks:
Comment from: davidr [Member] · http://www.freewebs.com/dwrob/
Interesting form, Sarah. As a non-poet, is a cinquain based on the numbers of words or syllables in the lines?
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28/05/07 @ 20:00
Comment from: sarah_james [Member] 
· http://www.milltech-systems.co.uk
· http://www.milltech-systems.co.uk
Hi David,
Very interesting question. I wouldn't claim to have definitive knowledge of poetry and researching on the internet etc I have not been able to definitively back up my answer.
I would say that it's meaning depends on contxt. In general terms, a cinquain is a five-line stanza (cinq being five in French, of course). When used to refer to a whole poem, it is a form developed/invented by Adelaide Crapsey, consisting of five lines with the syllable count: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, as you correctly observed. The latter is what was set out as the basis of the writelink game, each person beginning their cinquain with the first two words of the previous cinquain.
Very interesting question. I wouldn't claim to have definitive knowledge of poetry and researching on the internet etc I have not been able to definitively back up my answer.
I would say that it's meaning depends on contxt. In general terms, a cinquain is a five-line stanza (cinq being five in French, of course). When used to refer to a whole poem, it is a form developed/invented by Adelaide Crapsey, consisting of five lines with the syllable count: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, as you correctly observed. The latter is what was set out as the basis of the writelink game, each person beginning their cinquain with the first two words of the previous cinquain.
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29/05/07 @ 07:09