This is a prompting Blog

My intent here is to write a poem from the prompt I give to you , the reader, in hopes that it will inspire something and get others to write with me.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Today's Prompt is Cinqku

CINQKU is a fixed-form five line tanka/cinquain image poem without a title in 17 syllables,concise with a surprise or turn in lines 4/5. The form was created by Denis Garrison,an American poet.
In the examples I found several wonderfully written poems, the main rule is that there are no five syllable counted lines,( 2,3,4,6,2 is the common usage of the syllable count)
But our main rule is to have fun !!!

OURS IS...

Homeless
Winter day
Driving cold snow
and what if it were you
freezing ?

AND ANOTHER...

Painting
A portrait
of youth and love
a walls dust collector
fading

YOUR TURN
ENJOY
JL&B

11 comments:

  1. Dark sky,
    Star sprinkled,
    What can you see?
    Perhaps a worlds creation
    Or death.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Weather,
    Cold or hot,
    Rainy, sunny,
    We can't change the weather,
    Oh no?

    ReplyDelete
  3. My love
    I'm yearning
    To hold you now,
    I can't live without you
    My beer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Climbing,
    Striving on,
    Ambitions won,
    There's nothing I can't do
    Dreaming

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love you,
    Following you.
    With you always.
    Now put the milk bowl down,
    Thirsty.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Me, Growing Up At Last
    Part 1

    I’ve stood on the edge of that black abyss
    Full of self-hate and despair,
    Wondering how I got there,
    What evil did I do to get like this?
    But my heart would tell me I’d been remiss
    And my memory show where
    I’d done wrong and been unfair
    Showing me scenes I could not dismiss.
    I could remember everything I’d done wrong,
    That cannot be changed however much I long
    To go back for the tide of time is too strong,
    I could not return, so never could belong.

    So I lived behind a shield of make-believe
    A mask covered my face
    A smile fixed there in place
    While inside I would hide and there I would grieve
    Trying to find a way to quietly leave
    And with a little grace
    Vanish without a trace,
    From my presence I would everyone relieve.
    For I knew that everything I did was bad,
    And the troubles that my friends and family had
    For I knew within my soul they’d not be sad
    So my resolution then was ironclad.

    For I alone knew that I was just a lie,
    The was nothing inside
    The mask I’d used to hide
    And what I’d been so long before had died.
    I was a child who’d not be one who cried
    I’d hid my hurts down deep
    Secrets that I would keep
    Hidden from the people who laugh and deride.
    For my family was complete before I came,
    I was the accidental child, not my blame
    But my siblings made sure I knew all the same,
    Somehow leaving me with only thoughts of shame.

    I knew my mother loved me but I felt sure
    I wasn’t good enough
    My efforts were too rough
    I could not reach her standards so obscure
    While my father seemed determined to ensure
    I met only rebuff
    With grunts and answers gruff
    I knew my faults were too many for a cure.
    I was a failure in almost every way,
    Too young, too small, things I could not gainsay
    While my best efforts would always go astray,
    No friends were allowed to visit or to play.

    School ensured I knew that I was out of place
    My background was too poor,
    That school was really for
    The upper middle-class not for the common place.
    I learnt that I was worthless and very base.
    Intelligence for sure
    Was no reason for
    Some-one like me to stay within their embrace.
    I stuck it out for I refused to give in.
    I was determined that this time I would win.
    But the slights struck hard and stuck beneath my skin
    I made it but the cost wore my soul so thin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Part 2

    If you damage the chrysalis when it’s spun
    When the Butterfly
    Does not quickly die
    Its life is crippled before it had begun.
    And so it is the child cannot outrun
    Even when they try
    To find the reason why
    Childhood damage lasts lifelong when it is done.
    My mask grew up but I remained a young kid
    Projecting confidence with all I then did,
    Letting no-one close gently slid
    Inside my shield and hated the thing it hid.

    Then someone died while I was in charge that day.
    Investigation,
    A long duration,
    There was nothing I could have done they say.
    My head knows that it’s true, that there was no way
    The condemnation,
    My hearts creation,
    That I should have stopped it should hold any sway.
    But the emotions of the heart over-rule
    The cold logic that is the brains only tool.
    The brain is kind but the heart is very cruel
    When you truly believe that you’re a lying fool.


    So I’ve stood on the edge of that abyss.
    Feeling death call me
    Hoping I will see
    If not absolution then release from this.
    Held back by a fear I just could not dismiss
    That there just might be
    An afterlife were we
    Are forced to acknowledge all we’ve done amiss.
    I feared death as much as I hated my life
    Although each day was tortured by my hearts knife,
    Torn apart by my internal mental strife,
    Shredded by the doubts and fears that were so rife.

    I stepped back from the edge, I still don’t know why
    And I asked for aid,
    With a call I made,
    I found it and the finding at last let me cry.
    I was broken but kind people helped me try
    To at last let fade
    The cell I had made
    That prison mask I made and did occupy.
    Now I am growing up at last and learning
    To handle the new things I am discerning,
    To accept the praises that I am earning,
    While long held preconceptions overturning.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You inspired me to try again JL. I've wanted to write this but your epic verse gave me the push.

    The first verse of part 2 isn't right though, it should have read:
    If you damage the chrysalis when it’s spun
    When the Butterfly
    Does not quickly die
    Its life is crippled before it had begun.
    And so it is the child cannot outrun
    Even when they try
    To find the reason why
    Childhood damage lasts lifelong when it is done.
    My mask grew up but I remained a young kid
    Projecting confidence with all I then did,
    Letting no-one close in case they gently slid
    Inside my shield and hated the thing it hid.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No deaths,
    Everyone
    Lives forever
    In immortality
    Starving.

    ReplyDelete