CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week, we’re looking at a third type of cinquain. It can be created using either a Crapsey Form 1 or Crapsey Form 2 cinquain 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 third type of cinquain we’ll look at is called a Reverse Cinquain. This form reverses the order of the lines, with the first line having two syllables, the second line having eight syllables, the third line having six syllables, the fourth having four syllables, and the fifth returning again to two. . Here’s an example, inspired by the squawking rosellas outside my window: Squawking The rosellas fly, elusive despite red and blue coats amongst green leaves Hidden And here’s another one...

Welcome back to my exploration of poetical forms. For the next few weeks, we’re going to be focussing on 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 person who created the cinquain form was an American poet named Adelaide Crapsey who was inspired by the strict rules governing Japanese poetry forms. Many of her cinquains can be found in Verse, a collection of her work published in 1915. The first type of cinquain we’ll look at has no name, so I’ve called it Crapsey Form 1, after its creator. This form has one syllable in the first line, two in the second, three in the third, four in the fourth and only one in the fifth. Here’s an example, inspired by looking out my window at the park: Dogs Walking Playing ball With their owners Friends And here’s another one. Ghosts Screaming Souls bereft Of all life’s joy Weep Why...

One of the projects I’m working on involves writing a lot of poetry—actually, several of the projects I’m working on involve writing a lot of poetry—so I thought I’d share some of the things I learnt about poetry along the way. This journey will be a regularly scheduled feature for Mondays. Join me if you dare. When I started, I already wrote poetry—freeform, haiku, whatever rhyming form appealed to me, but nothing truly disciplined outside the haiku. I’d heard of cinquains, but had no idea what they were, so I went looking. Here’s what I found out: A cinquain belongs to a group of poetical forms known as quintains. Quintains are poems that are five lines long, and some alternative types are listed below. This section focuses on cinquains, which tell a small story and are made up of both adjectives and verbs, feelings and a conclusion. Cinquains were created by an American poet called Adelaide Crapsey, who was said to be inspired by the strict rules governing the Japan...