Five lines of poetic fun

Write a cinquain with this Sunday creativity prompt

A cinquain about chalk.

This Sunday we’re writing a poem. As this newsletter is a poetry magazine, this should not surprise you. The intention is to do this every month at least once. And not just any sort of poem, we’re writing to a certain poetic form. Today that is the cinquain.

The cinquain is a form that can be traced back to France in the Middle Ages. Its name means "group of five", in this case, five lines. So, cinquains are poems of five lines. Within this constraint, you can do a lot. And it's a great tool to get children to write poetry.

The two shapes of cinquains

In contemporary poetry writings, there are two main shapes that cinquains can take. In education, especially primary education, the cinquain is defined (according to Wikipedia), as a poem "consisting of one noun, two adjectives, three actions, four feeling words, and the initial noun again.” The feeling words can be interpreted as four words to describe what you feel about the noun word. The poem above in the image is an example of this.

Chalk.
Colourful. Dusty.
Drawing. Writing. Learning.
Makes me happily creative.
Chalk.

Among poets writing poetry, a cinquain is mostly known as a poem that has a syllabic nature. In this form, pioneered by American poet Adelaide Crapsey, a cinquain is a poem with lines of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 syllables.

Here's an example (that can be collected on the Tezos blockchain):

The bull
and the bear dance
as Ouroboros. New
order arrives with infinite
rebirth.

Your creative prompt this Sunday: write a cinquain poem.

Have fun, and if you so wish, share your results in the comments.

This creative prompt is a new series in your inbox poetry magazine. Find it every Sunday in your inbox. In January, these prompts are open to everybody. Then, from next week, they will be for paid subscribers only.