I’ve been dabbling in cinquains lately. Robert Lee Brewer at Writer’s Digest describes a cinquain as a “nifty 5-line poetic form.” From start to finish, the syllable line count is 2,4,6,8,2. There’s some flexibility, as the poet can add or remove a syllable from each line. Recently, I discovered a daily cinquain prompt on Twitter (@AlexPriceWriter) and it’s been a fun, no stress way to start my day. Here are two from this past week:
prompt: crowd
My head:
a mad slippery crowd
of teeming thoughts
struggling to make their way upstream
to spawn.
©Molly Hogan
prompt: sorrow
heavy
as an anchor
sorrow accumulates
digs in beneath the surface
holds fast
©Molly Hogan
As tends to happen, once you start thinking about a form, it takes up residence in your head. So, driving to work this week, I continued dabbling with cinquains, even without a prompt!
Commute
Eastern blush
ignites the coming day
Everything seems possible at
sunrise
©Molly Hogan
This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Susan at Chicken Spaghetti. Be sure to stop by and see what’s on offer!
Nix the comfort zone 
Love “eastern blush”! I’m thinking a lot lately about thoughts and how they invade and keep tapping and waking, annoying, aren’t they?
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Thinking about thoughts is always an interesting endeavor!
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Molly, thanks for the information about the cinquain prompt. I found your cinquain poems to be unique and interesting. Your photo is striking and calming to stare at.
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Carol, I like the size and form of the cinquain. They feel manageable in the morning, and get my brain going.
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The image of thoughts as salmon is so interesting! Which ones get to multiply? Saving that. xo
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My brain can feel like a very busy place! lol So many ideas jostling for dominance!
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Molly, I love cinquain. I used this form often when holding my third-grade writer’s circle. And, I can certainly relate to the first cinquain you shared! I also love the morning commute and accompanying photo – who wouldn’t love to see that and use it to create? Thanks!
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It’s not a form I’ve used much before, and I’m really enjoying it!
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It’s so interesting to see how the lines build, expand the idea, from one to the next with so few words. I think I’ll try a few this week. Thanks
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Have fun!
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This would make a good companion practice to Haiku-a-Day! Maybe I’ll use my random first Wordle word as my prompt…or one of the words in Waffle…
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I’ll be interested to see what you do. I have become more and more aware of how much I don’t know about haiku. Cinquain (at least for now) feels more forgiving.
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Love these, Molly. And that photo is gorgeous. I’m interested in short lines, and will give this form a try. Thank you.
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Thanks, Susan, and thanks again for hosting. Hope you have fun with the cinquains!
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I LOVE Alex Price’s daily cinquain prompt! It fuels my creativity for the coming day and has become a part of my morning routine. I will look for more of yours! Beautiful beautiful sunrise, Molly!
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I’ve seen some of yours on Twitter, Patricia! They’re wonderful and I love the photo pairing. I haven’t been sharing mine there much at all, but am enjoying the creative exercise within the confines of my notebook.
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Lovely cinquains. The possibilities of sunrise…
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It’s an inherently optimistic time, isn’t it!?
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Mmmm. Just the right bite-sized mouthful for a morning, and you are ranging across them with your usual bold images! I like (and recognize)
“thoughts
struggling to make their way upstream
to spawn.”
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So many casualties along the way…
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Oh, I love these kinds of forms. They are way better than a crossword puzzle for me. I need to play in my notebook now! “Everything seems possible at sunrise”…with your photographs. Thanks, Molly.
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Happy playing, Linda!
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Love that final line, Molly, a positive thought sneaking into your head portends a good day indeed. The first are lovely, too, “that slippery crowd” feels like it connects to ‘digging in’ – companions! Have a great week ahead!
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I thought it might be nice to end on a positive note 🙂 Watching the sunrise and seeing the world awaken always lifts me up.
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You capture crowds perfectly — and worked a metaphor into such a tight form. WOW!
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Molly, yes to your therapeutic cinquains. I resonate with and love these lines “struggling to make their way upstream/to spawn.” I relate to these lines “heavy as an anchor” and “digs in beneath the surface.” Wow! What an amazing photo you captured, and your poem is perfect for it. How did you think of “eastern blush”? I love it! I totally agree with Linda M. “‘Everything seems possible at sunrise’ with your photographs.” (Hopefully, I have the quotations correct in the last quotation.) Thank you for sharing your inner thoughts, your inspiration, and your light.
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