Cinquains - five line poems

NOTE TO RATERS/REVIEWERS:

American cinquains, developed by Adelaide Crapsey, have 22 syllables in five lines: 2-4-6-8-2. There should be a building of emotion and release. A crescendo 2-4-6-8 and a final dimuendo. Iambic meter is traditional but other meters are fine, although difficult. Also, traditionally there are 11 stresses, but this is not as important as the number of syllables. Some of my cinquains follow one of two modified forms: 3-5-7-9-3 or rarely 3-6-9-12-3. Both of these allow for dactyls and more intricate rhythms.

In cinquains, the title can be most important, a sixth line that gives context. The cinquain is so restricted as to syllables that it can be obscure without a good title. So sometimes, anything that is not poetic enough for the poem is thrown into the title, quite different from haiku which have none. It is related to tanka.

This is a particular form with strict rules that I like to bend but not break.

Rhyme is not required. Neither is alliteration.

link to Amaze: The Cinquain Journal: http://members.aol.com/acinquain/


Note: some poems may be in the editing process and not appear in correct forms.

I NUMBER FOR EASIER REFERENCE FOR EDIT AND REVIEW. AND FOR ANYONE INTERESTED ENOUGH TO RATE INDIVIDUALLY!!!


1

Early morningsong

Three laughs.
Sweet June has chimed
within a small boy’s voice.
The melody of fatherhood,
reminds.

10 juni 2005


2 unavailable

{{b}A Question for Third Father’s Day

Do you
miss the diapers?
The cries? The fuss? The burps?
He’s old enough for a sibling now.
Careful!

10 juni 2005}


3 unavailable

{{b}Dad’s retort

Careful?
Three years have passed.
What was I thinking then?
That’s right! Nothing! But isn’t he
so ME?

10 juni 2005}


4

Why can’t he sleep like stars?

Stars wink,
and yawn at dawn,
but he awakes with joy,
yells “Happy Father’s Day” to sleep-
filled eyes.

10 juni 2005


5

Father’s day … much too early

In jest,
We bang the pans.
No hangover ‘s allowed!
The eggs-and-bacon ‘s almost done.
Come on!

10 juni 2005


6

Payback

Short legs
Run, jump, skip, climb.
Just like you! They snicker.
Quick, put away the crystal, hide
car keys.

10 juni 2005


7

The exasperated mother squeaks ...

Take him.
He’s yours till Six.
Enjoy this Father’s Day.
I will come back to pick him up,
... maybe.

12 juni 2005


8

Ask me about Father’s Day

Warm sun,
playground picnic.
Watching clouds with my son.
Better than chasing hockey pucks!
He hoots.

12 juni 2005

© Kare Enga


Author's notes: Number #1-8 are for my friend Gary McPike on his third Father's Day.


9

Without a filter

Smoke coats
the lungs with warmth,
black bellows stoking fire.
No tampax on HIS cigarette
ablaze!

Kåre Enga © 2004

Catalogue number: [161.491a.]
24 august 2004


10

Picnic memory

Pickles,
mustard, ketchup.
Bread waited for the slide
of tight packed processed meat between
the buns.

Kåre Enga © 2004

Catalogue number: [161.491b]
24 august 2004


11

Henry's coffeehouse

On tap:
chatter below
art hung on flint rock walls
that braved the fires of Quantrill's raid,
survived.

Kåre Enga © 2004

Catalogue number: [161.491c]
24 august 2004


12

January 1972

French blood
colored fresh snow.
The day, the month, your face?
Long forgotten by everyone,
but me.

Kåre Enga © 2004

Catalogue number: [161.493a]
25 august 2004


13

His Royal Highness Ivan

Ivan
the terrible,
tempest in a hotpot.
Nutmeg, sugar, coffee islands,
vapored.

Catalogue number: [161.525c]


14

From a darkened corner

Cello
strings sing blue
somber notes, adagios.
My memory blurs, can’t see who plays.
Is it ... ?

Catalogue number: [161.530b]


15

Office morning parade

Click-clack
Here, the men quack!
In their neck ties, black slacks,
coffee in hand. What do they lack?
Chick-snack.

Catalogue number: [161.531a]


16

Aargh, why do I write this stuff?

So soon,
the poem ‘s done.
Twenty-two syllables:
answers to the world’s questions,
unasked.

Catalogue number: [161.531b]


17

Yellow Birdsong

To sell
canary charm:
feed with seed, fresh water.
Chants will trill at break of dawn, rid
sorrow.

Catalogue number: [161.534a]


18

September 10th

Eve of
Eleventh day,
Sorrows of September
aren’t known, nor predicted, ‘fore the
morrow.

Catalogue number: [161.534b]


19

Chetham at La Parrilla

Diet
Of rice and beans,
Espinaca, yuca.
Latin fare served by Bengali
Kansan.

Catalogue number: [161.535b]


20

Missouri visits K.U.

Masshole,
en masse on Mass.
Friday night party town!
Rush Limbaugh would be roasted here,
naked.

Catalogue number: [161.535c]


21

See that cute CEO wannabe?

Big dick,
and doctorate,
broad shouldered, slim, tight hipped.
What could there be wrong with this guy?
Small heart.

Catalogue number: [161.530a]

Kåre Enga © 2004


22

So ... Heddrick

Can you
see your future
across the sea of time?
Where yellow lilies bloom ... softly voiced
their chimes?

Catalogue number: [161.512b]


23

Here come b-ball boy!

Up t'ere,
Luke skytalker,
nordic pole, flaxen stalk,
taller d'an Dakota oak trees,
t'inner.

Catalogue number: [161.523a]


24

4 year old Hubbard in the '41 Chevy

Push clutch,
roll down the hill,
hidden, hit the starter,
make the 'ghost car' roll up again,
giggle.

Catalogue number: [161.524]


25

Helper to the helpless

Mabel,
'she-laughs-a-lot',
'Mabelline', 'Black Label'.
"Can she introduce you to a
shower?"

Catalogue number: [161.524a]


26

John Taylor's Aunt Betty

She said,
"We're not gonna
have enema that, John"
He grinned, "Suppositorily
speaking?"

Catalogue: [161.527b]


27

BETWEEN US

The desert between us 27a

Can we talk?
If cracks between bricks
can sustain life in myriad forms
how can this distance, dry cold and cruel,
defeat us?


The storm between us 27b

Thunder bolts
tell strange tales with light,
flash blue, pink and white thru night.
Your silence hovers in the stillness
of static.


God speaks of the bond between us 27c

Sign language
of the branches. Weaves
of honey from clods and wisps.
Sky and Earth connect: tree sap, prana
from our breath.

9 juni 2005

NOTE

Prana: a life breath or vital principle in Vedic and later Hindu religion; any of the three or more vital currents; the principle of life moving in the human body.


28

At the small town bookstore

Quiet.
After vespers,
even the sunbeamed motes
soft-shoe among the coffee cups
and flies.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219c]


29

Last lily blooming by Plymouth Church

Petals,
torn, wilted, weep;
the stamens bending; will
holding them back. Their fall still comes,
then sleep.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219a]


30

Exorcise of summer

Heat seeps,
beyond the bones,
into weary muscles,
then sweats away the excess fat
and pants.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219b]

Note: 'exorcise' as in exorcise spirits or 'excess fat'. Not 'exercise', not a typo.

Kåre Enga © 2004


31

A simple act of kindness

Cara
brings coffee, cream.
From the 6th floor patio,
I inhale dreams gleaned from viewing
The Game.

Football
holds sway over autumn’s splendor.
I sip and savor this
Kansas moment
of ruth.

Kåre Enga © 2004

Notes: This is a mirror cinquain 2/4/6/8/2 2/8/6/4/2. ruth: kindness, antonym of ruthless.


32

Northern melodies

Why not
enjoy the buzz,
fly’s kin that suck on skin?
Dare you swat to kill Alaska’s
songbird?

Catalogue number: [161:458a4]


33

Alabama

Ant and
ant lion, hawk
and rabbit, warm biscuits
with gravy. We sit at separate
tables.

Catalogue number: [161.483b]


34

Arizona

No green ‘s
revealed by rock.
The color of dryness
shares no foothold of life without
water.

Catalogue number: [161.463b2]


35 unavailable

{{b}California

Patchquilt
Of excitement:
montañas, tsunami,
playas, sushi, terremoto,
Ahnold.

Catalogue number: [161.482b2]}


36

Connecticut

At Yale,
wisteria hangs
from stone, centuries old.
Youth play on mown lawns with plastic
Frisbees

Catalogue number: [161.482a]


37

Rehobeth Beach

Oysters
know the accents:
Philadelphia’s finest
in three piece suits, gay Quebecers
naked.

Catalogue number number: [161.461c2]


38

Florida

Palms soar
above the scent
of flowers, bend in breeze,
before Storms-of-ages, break them
in two.

Catalogue number: [161.460a]


39

Never petulant in Peoria

I was
Illinoised till
I gave up the pretense,
trashed the masks, that Heartland hearts saw,
sawed through.

Catalogue number: [161.458c2]


40

As seen from Windsor

Water,
summer swimming,
cherry trees, ice fishing,
crowded ferries and Henry Ford,
Detroit.

Catalogue number: [161.481e4]


41

Montana

No sky
larger then grass
spread beyond horizon,
beyond buffalos that nurse
daughters.

Catalogue number: [161.483a]


42

North Dakota

On wings
Of Lakota
flutes, woven with wonder
from blue flax and blue sky, we dance
with hoops.

Catalogue number: [161.460b]


43

Ohio!

“Hello!”
To your three piece
civility, bridging
north and south. To your chilliness?
“Bye-bye.”

Catalogue number: [161.458d2]


44

South Carolina

Time drifts.
Fish eyes, ice tea,
Bare wood floors, red dirt paths.
The lazy Pee Dee drifts by here,
past time.

Catalogue number: [161.474e2]


45

Midland, Texas

Oil stench,
Guns and fists clenched,
Violence raping hot
desert land where people worship
money.

Catalogue number: [161.465c]


46

Richmond

Statues
stand in granite,
legacy of an ancient war.
Hearts still resist all change,
stone cast.

Catalogue number: [161.480b]


47

Vermonters

Hidden
behind the cloak
of evergreen, red maples,
silent under the white of snow,
folk watch.

Catalogue number: [161.480c2]


48

West Virginia

She curves
her narrow roads
around green mountains and
over coal fed streams to fiddles heard
through mist.

Catalogue number: [161.483c2]


49

Well’s Overlook

On top,
the tower sways.
Feet beat to heart’s rhythm,
climb to the climax of the day’s
vision.

Catalogue number: [161.493b]
25 august 2004


50

Afar from Kansas heights

Can you
overlook flaws?
See me from your tower,
diminished by the haze and mist,
forgive?

Catalogue number: [161.497b]
26 august 2004


51

Covering her back of hand

Cold beads
caress Bea’s skin,
grasp her index finger,
Indian engagement bracelet
jangles.

Catalogue number: [161.498a]
26 august 2004


52


No cups

Ten cards
dealt one by one
swords, pentacles and wands,
tell of Glenwood Springs and tarot
murders.

Catalogue number: [161.498b]
26 august 2004


53

Johnson County, Kansas

Pale folk,
rich and privileged.
Add a homeless person,
maybe an immigrant or two
in red.

Catalogue number: [161.499b]
26 august 2004


54

Colorless

City’s
kaleidoscope ‘s
enhanced by rural green,
while pure white suburbs sterilize
with bleach.

Catalogue number: [161.499a]
26 august 2004


55

Not far enough away

Aching,
to hear your voice,
yet fear of rejection
guards my silence a thousand miles
away

Catalogue number: [161.501a]
27 august 2004


56

Heart’s insights

Go on!
Get over him!
Judgment barked by those who’ll
never know the wisdom of love’s
patience.

Catalogue number: [161.501b]
27 august 2004


57


Waiting to say 'Happy Birthday'

Seven
days, ten fingers
minus three, lifetime for
a child of two, eternity
for me.

Catalogue number: [161.501c]
27 august 2004


58


Alcoholic attitudes

Ant hills,
stirred by thunder
Hot electric liquid
fills the couples with bad manners
and piss.

Catalogue number: [161.502a]
27 august 2004


59

Friday night at the shelter

Scurry!
Ants run amok.
Thunder stirs the bottle,
alcoholic fisticuffs and
flurry.

Catalogue number: [161.502b]
27 august 2004


60

Advice to suburbia

Add red
to black and white.
To your weed-free lawns,
add the flowers of the human
garden.

Catalogue number: [161.503]
27 august 2004


61

Farmer son’s first date

Kansas
cornfields beckon.
Between the rows of stalks,
the young cob shares sweetness with his
girlfriend.

Catalogue number: [161.506a]
29 august 2004


62

Rummy

Cards dealt
Seven each time
Count points for runs and pairs,
5 for 2, 10 for queen, an ace?
15.

Catalogue number: [161.506b]
29 august 2004


63

Hurricane Gaston

Wind, clouds,
Rainstorms, then sun.
Bands of devastation
cross the Carolina coastline
with floods.

Catalogue number: [161.507a]
30 august 2004


64

Hurricane Frances

At sea,
vortex churning,
waves that toss tankers like
relationships, like a stormy
nightmare.

Catalogue number: [161.507b]
30 august 2004


65

Quince in February

Unwrapped,
one small red bud
awakes between the frosts,
holding forth a scarlet promise
Of warmth.

Catalogue number: [161.1064b]


66

February’s flower

“Today,
none see my buds,
scarlet, peach and yellow”.
The quince, blooming out of season,
takes note.

Catalogue number: [161.1064c]


67


Silly

Throw corn
on frozen lakes.
Geese will gather and speak
like workers at office parties:
drink, eat.

Catalogue number: [161.1131a]


68

Two types of geese

Proper,
Dressed black and white
they stand alert for corn
thrown at their feet. With yellow beaks,
they peck.

Silk ties,
black suits, white shirts.
They stand alert for news.
“The boss is dead or been demoted,”
they peck.

Catalogue number [161.1131b]

Note: a cinquain sequence.


69

On the street where you live

Dove-like,
each flutters down.
Pear blossom petals mask
our vista in pristine white pearls,
warm snow.

Catalogue number: [161.1212b]
20 mars 2005


70

Professor Gitta

Guru
to the numbers
psychologically
addicted to statistics of
the mind.

She tests
her young students,
thrilled when they get an A,
disappointed when testing fails,
she minds.

Numbers,
valid answers
only when the questions asked
reflect reality within
our minds.

What minds?
Can humans see
beyond the flesh that hides
the heart and spirit dwelling deep
within?

Numbers,
cold yet calming,
tell stories she must teach,
reveal to students, opening
their minds.

Catalogue number: [161.556.abcde]

Notes: This is a crown cinquain (5 stanzas).

Gitta is a grad student at Kansas U. in quantitative psychology. She was teaching her brother his abcs when she was 5 and he was 2 1/2! So its reasonable to imagine her becoming a professor. She hails from Singapore by way of Taiwan and Wisconsin.


71

Sylvan

Tall tree,
clad in blue-green,
speaks the language of clouds,
Dakota's tongue. Drinks God's grace from
thunder.

Catalogue number: [161.485b]
23 august 2004.

Note: for Sylvan Provincial.


72

The tinkle, the crunch of childhood

Red snowsuits
run away from me
through snow-glass, each pane breaking,
Ice rending, heart mending, they giggle
with great glee.

Catalogue number: [162.182a.cq3]
10 juni 2005


73

Backpacks hike down the sidewalk

Nylon,
polyester,
extruded fossil fuels,
woven to carry all your books,
break backs.

Catalogue number: [162.184a]
10 juni 2005


74

Do you remember the Alamo?

Así,
we live and love,
make children every night,
dark-skinned, dark-eyed dreams, crying out:
poplars.

catalogue number: [162.184b]
10 juni 2005

Note: álamo (Spanish) = poplar (English)


75

In the heat of August thank …

Green hills,
Rust colored cliffs,
The cooling Illinois,
O land of Tah. O Tahlequah,
Wado!

Catalogue number: [162.184c]
10 juni 2005

Note: wado (Cherokee) = thank-you (English)


76

Light play

Sunshine
dapples between
raindrops & soft shadows.
Beneath the lace of locust leaves,
it plays.

Catalogue number: [162.188a.2ginkgo1]


77

Oak headstone

Squirrels
race through oak leaves.
Grey fur flies past acorns,
oblivious to Death that claimed
their mate.

catalogue number: [162.188b.2ginkgo2]


78

Revolution’s moon

What sad songs.
Will he learn to croon,
Ireland’s story of defeat?
Told in the bodhran’s beat, drumming to
the moonrise.

Catalogue number: [161.192a.cq3]
12 juni 2005


79

Three year old at the playground

Swinging,
climbing ladders,
he teeters; he totters,
making the merry spin around
your guts.

Catalogue number: [161.192b]
12 juni 2005


80

Walking away

No fear,
small legs catch up.
He’ll never lose you.
He would recognize your aura
on Mars!

Catalogue number: [161.192c]
12 juni 2005


81

Father and son in flight school

There he soars!
Held up by your hand,
he paddles the air to reach
the sofa’s back. Someday, he’ll teach you
how to fly.

Catalogue number: [161.193a]
12 juni 2005


82

Listening to my love guru

Ellen
encourages
me to kiss my girlfriend.
"This one should not get away!"
she says.

Catalogue number: [162.194a.2ginkgo3)
13 juni 2005


83

A child explains

It’s my job.
Making father laugh.
Someone ‘s got to heal the bruise,
brought on by age and hockey pucks. I
seal the wounds.

Catalogue number: [194b.cq3.2Ginkgo4)
13 juni 2005


84

Thus you are me

We are born
alone. We die alone.
But by no means can we breathe alone.
The molecules exhaled by you, inhaled by me,
connect us.

Catalogue number: [161.195c.cq369]
13 juni 2005


85

Crayola pens

Orange ink,
not blood colored,
not the dark of midnight,
squirts a citrus fragrance across
this page.

Catalogue number: [162.196a]


86

Modern Monkey Trials

Lawyers.
The money spent.
Vengeance is never fought
with knives. The sound of green decides
who’s right.

Catalogue number: [162.196b]


87

High price of bliss

Innocence,
The wide eyed excuse
Of living in ignorance.
Dangerous, when cold reality
Hurts, maims, kills.

Catalogue number: [162.197a.cq3.2ginkgo5]


88

Perspective found

Chico
reads the want ads,
stares at a future lost
between no cash, no job, no home
and laughs.

Catalogue number: [162.197b.cq.2ginkgo6]


89

Anticipation

Hey dad,
how many days
till we flood the yard?
Are the nights cold enough now it's
August?

Catalogue number: [162.25b]
2 april 2005


90

Canada's son

That summer,
they moved to Texas.
Hell had never been so hot!
He waited with his skates for winter.
... Didn't come.

Catalogue number: [162.72b]
22 april 2005


91

Bury me in the pond

Dearest niece:
... Upon my deathbed,
bring me your new unlaced skates,
that I may know their form when they soar
above me.

Catalogue number: [162.89b]
2 mai 2005


92

The novice

He stands stiff,
stick held fast in hands.
No one claims he glides on ice.
His eyes stare cold; he flicks his wrist, smiles
as he scores.

Catalogue number: [162.64a]
21 april 2005


93

Why did we fight?

Where was she?
She said she would come.
Said she might be late from work.
Who could be more important than me?
Gloves come off.

Catalogue number: [162.73b]
23 april 2005


94

Hope (old skates)

Unlaced,
they sag alone.
The skates of youth-now-gone
rest at the back of closets, guard
memories.

Catalogue number: [162.68b]
22 april 20005


95

Face off

One, two, three.
Each moment stretches
before the ref drops the puck.
The center holds his breath, becomes 'One'
with the spot.

Catalogue number: [162.67a]
22 april 20005


96

Summer dreams

He grieves.
Daffodils bloom.
Grass turns emerald
and the skating rink becomes
a pond.

Once more
he'll grab a pail,
hunt for worms, catch some fish,
stretch out on the bank and moan:
winter.

Catalogue number: [162.68a]
22 april 2005


97

Skating belongs to the young

Clean diapers,
properly bundled,
across the slick smooth surface.
He will learn to glide, long before he's
potty trained.

Catalogue number: [162.71b]
22 april 2005


98

Boards around the rink

Useful,
to stretch one's legs,
or bang opponents' heads.
Boards keep the fights within the rink
... sometimes.

Catalogue number: [162.71b]
22 april 2005


99

Patron saint

Bury me,
beneath the ice rink.
In summer, I'll push up grass.
In winter, I'll freeze ice-cream dreams of
Stanley cups.

Catalogue number: [162.73c]
23 april 2005


100

Goalie

Padded, masked,
patiently she waits.
Muscles quiver, emotions quake,
while she must calm the center of her
gravity.

Catalogue number: [162.64b]
21 april 2005


101

Vision of longing

Daaughter-
of-thin-black-ice,
white skates, red coat, green scarf:
glisten on this depth of mirrors, glide
hither.

Catalogue number: [162.891]
2 mai 2005


102

Defenseman on the bench

Goal!GOAL!!!
Down in the mouth,
he goes to sit alone.
That shot? Great for the other team,
that scored.

Catalogue number: [162.73a]
23 april 2005


103

Patience

Cold calm
rime rests waiting.
It beckons me to skate.
I glare back, groan, scratch my broken
ankle.

Catalogue number: [162.25a]
2 april 2005


104

Backyard playground

Red slide
in the morning.
Two feet coming at me,
fast flurry and a cheerful chirp,
"Catch me!"

catalogue number: [162.509a]
4 november 2005

105

November's walk

Legs up,
the brown oak leaf
scurries along the walk,
a dull brown spider, dead after
the fall.

catalogue number: [162.546b]
13 november 2005

© Kåre Enga