poetree

One of my favorite poem forms is the cinquain, if only because of the many variations it has. If I go more in depth about it, I love the cinquain and its variants because they're bite-sized poems that can really pack a punch. And they're really easy to take on the go with you, both as a poet and a reader. I've been known to jot down a poem, usually in the tanka variant, at really random times and in a wide variety of places. As long as I have pen and paper or my iPod to capture it, I'm good to go. And the fact that it doesn't require any sort of rhyme scheme makes it even better in my eyes.

On the Cinquain wiki page, there are 10 variations listed. Of these 10, I have written 6 or 7 in the last year, primarily during National Poetry Month 2011. My beloved tanka is considered a variant of the cinquain, and I'm an old hat at the tanka. LOL!

According to the wiki page, a cinquain is primarily "a stanza of five lines of accentual-syllabic verse, in which the lines comprise, in order, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 1 stresses and 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables." There was also discussion of iambic feet utilized, but I don't always follow that myself.

The variations are listed below, with definitions from the wiki page.

Reverse cinquain :: a form with one 5-line stanza in a syllabic pattern of two, eight, six, four, two.
Mirror cinquain :: a form with two 5-line stanzas consisting of a cinquain followed by a reverse cinquain.
I've written at least one of these in the past.
Butterfly cinquain :: a nine-line syllabic form with the pattern two, four, six, eight, two, eight, six, four, two.
I've written at least one of these in the past.
Crown cinquain :: a sequence of five cinquain stanzas functioning to construct one larger poem.
Garland cinquain :: a series of six cinquains in which the last is formed of lines from the preceding five, typically line one from stanza one, line two from stanza two, and so on.
I really want to try one of these, but haven't yet... Or, if I have, I don't remember it.
Didactic cinquain :: I'll just refer you to the wiki definiition, rather than blockquote it.
I think I've written this form, as well.
Tanka :: is a five-line form of unrhymed Japanese poetry, totalling 31 moras structured in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.
I've written more of these than I can count. And I do a variation of the crown cinquain with tankas as the stanzas, but there's no set number of stanzas in the poem.
Tetractys :: is five-line poem of 20 syllables with a title, arranged in the following order: 1,2,3,4,10, with each line standing as a phrase on its own. It can be inverted, doubled, etc. and was created by the late English poet Ray Stebbings.
I've written at least one triple tetractys, and probably more of this form, too.
Cinqku :: is a five line blending of the cinquain and tanka forms, created by American poet Denis Garrison. It consists of five lines with a total of 17 syllables.
This is a fun variation to write, too...
Lanterne :: is an untitled five line quintain verse with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one. Each line is usually able to stand on its own.
If I haven't written this variation yet, I will probably do so next month.

And now for a pair of my favorites from this form and its variations. See if you can guess which variations they are...

"stars"

glimmer
far away shine
incandescent pulses
lifetimes aweay and yet right here
divine
lovers dream, a dying embrace
perfectly captured bliss
ephemeral
fading

"Naked"

laid bare to the bone
nothing more can harm you now
safety comes too late
childhood innocence is gone
stroke the marks of womanhood

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