Daily Cinquain

Decided that I need to get back to my roots—my Master of Fine Arts degree was in creative writing, with an emphasis in poetry. And while I'll never stop writing children's books (they just fit my off-kilter sense of humor and the subjects I like to write about), I still get the urge to dabble in poetry.

One of my favorite forms is the cinquain. Like Haikus, they have a set syllable count.

Line 1 — 2 syllables

Line 2 — 4 syllables

Line 3 — 6 syllables

Line 4 — 8 syllables

Line 5 — 2 syllables

Here's a sample:

Winter

Has left

a dirty white

sock along side the road

as Spring's rain and warmth chased him down

the street.

It's a metaphor for those grungy snowbanks that line roads as winter transitions into spring. Their dirtiness reminds me of a well worn sock.

So to keep dabbling in poetry, I have a goal of writing a cinquain a day—at least for the next year. To capture these small poems, I opened a Twitter account. The length of a cinquain and the character limit of tweets go hand in hand.

If you'd like to follow me and read what I'm tweeting, look my up at Daily Cinquain. I may also post some here from time to time.