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When I was first taught the cinquain, somehow I was told it had a pattern of 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 syllables, not 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, so that’s why these poems follow the pattern they do—really half-cinquains. Impressionable young mind. This problem was not quite as bad, however, as being told in high school that haiku had to follow a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. But I digress.
Cinquain for Introductions
aitch
aitch-ee
aitch-ee-el
aitch-ee-el-el
Oh!
Furniture
Da!mn
—his voice
,drop-ping low,
Cursed the stub-bing
toe.
Vowel Movement
eh?
eh-yee!
eh-yeeee-I!
eh-yee-I-oh!
You!
Mule
If
You say
So then that
Is the way it
Is.
The Drowning
Slip
Stumble
Splashing deep
Sinking beneath
Weeds.
From Ninety-Seven Poems, but otherwise previously unpublished, except for the first piece, which appeared in The Stuttering Priest in 1984.
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