Cinquains

I've been introduced to another structure I can play with

I follow Forest Rebel here on Substack, and he’s recently been publishing some American Cinquains such as this one;

Worship

For the uninitiated, such as me, these are five line poems designed for the English language but patterned after short Japanese and Chinese poetry - haiku being the most well known.

They follow in the footsteps of the imagists - a group of early 20th century poets whose work I generally enjoy as it mixes brevity and impact well.

Each line of the poem grows and builds on the line before. We go from a single stress and 2 syllables, to 2 stresses and 4 syllables, then 3/6, 4/8 and the final line reverts back to the single stress and 2 syllables.

Scottish poet William Soutar was famous for writing these, and an appropriate one for a cold February Saturday is this;

PROMISES OF SPRING
And since
These coloured leaves
Rise out of darkened dust,
Shall not our wintry grief unfold
A flower?

Whilst I doubt I’ll ever stick to a single format, I do enjoy playing with form and structure and feel it helps my writing and thought process. I find stress patterns challenging to write in, I think it’s due to many years teaching English as a foreign language and realising quite how many things can be stressed differently.

I’ve previously written triolets, a modified version of Dante’s Terza Rima, something inspired by historical epics, satirical couplets, a translated poem, haiku, a longer work inspired by older religious poetry, and the early renaissance Rhyme Royal.

I know my poetry doesn’t have the same audience as my longer essays, especially those of a political or cultural character, but the outsider poetry sphere here on Substack is growing and we now have print representatives too. The poetry section of substack is well worth diving into and provides a lot of inspiration for writers and readers.

Here’s my attempt at this Cinquian form.

England.

From peak to shore.

Once a mighty kingdom

Of aged oak, roast beef and black coals.

Now bleeds.

Can you recommend any other examples of the cinquain, or other outsider poets here on the ‘stack?