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
Dark sky,
ReplyDeleteStar sprinkled,
What can you see?
Perhaps a worlds creation
Or death.
Weather,
ReplyDeleteCold or hot,
Rainy, sunny,
We can't change the weather,
Oh no?
NICE Penny !!
ReplyDeleteMy love
ReplyDeleteI'm yearning
To hold you now,
I can't live without you
My beer.
Climbing,
ReplyDeleteStriving on,
Ambitions won,
There's nothing I can't do
Dreaming
Love you,
ReplyDeleteFollowing you.
With you always.
Now put the milk bowl down,
Thirsty.
Me, Growing Up At Last
ReplyDeletePart 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.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteIf 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.
WOW PENNY THAT IS AWESOME !!!
ReplyDeleteYou inspired me to try again JL. I've wanted to write this but your epic verse gave me the push.
ReplyDeleteThe 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.
No deaths,
ReplyDeleteEveryone
Lives forever
In immortality
Starving.