The Cinquain Challenge: Form 4—The Mirror Cinquain

This week, we’re looking at a fourth type of cinquain. Again, it uses either a Crapsey Form 1 or a Crapsey Form 2 as a base.

For those of you who are new to this series, Adelaide Crapsey was an American poet who was inspired by the rules of Japanese poetry to create her own poetical form, the cinquain.

A cinquain is a five-line poem that has a set number of syllables (or word types) per line. Sometimes the title of a cinquain acts as a sixth line.

The fourth type of cinquain we’ll look at is called a Mirror Cinquain. This form consists of two five-line verses—a Crapsey Form 1 or 2 cinquain, and a Reverse Cinquain based on the form used in the first verse.

Here’s an example, inspired by the day outside my window:

Sunlight

Reflected on leaves

From a sky grey with cloud

Rain threatens, wind blows, the sun shines

Autumn

Some leaves

Have turned early

Red and yellow highlights

Amidst a stormy sea of green

Autumn

And here’s another one.

Starships

Bound out of orbit

Engines winking, bright like stars

To far-flung planets newly found

Settlers

Settlers

Traders, poets

Explorers full of hope

For fortune, new market, new lives,

Starships

Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one mirror cinquain for each day of the week. They don’t take a lot of time, but they can be a bit tricky. Here’s one way you might want to approach them:

• Decide on a topic;
• Think of words, phrases, feelings and ideas that relate to your topic and work out the order you want to express those things in;
• Work out how to express each idea in the right number of syllables for the line it’s on;
• Write your cinquain;
• Check there are the right number of syllables on each line; and
• Centre the poem on your page.

Or you can just write them as you go, letting inspiration take you where it will, but remember to check your syllables and centre your poem at the end.

Enjoy!