The Cinquain Challenge: Form 7—The Garland Cinquain

This week, we’re looking at yet another form of cinquain—the Garland Cinquain. Again, it uses either a Crapsey Form 1 or a Crapsey Form 2 as a base, but this time it consists of six separate cinquain verses. The first five verses stand alone, but are linked by the poetical theme. The sixth verse is made up of lines from the verses that came before it, usually taking its first line from the first verse, the second line from the second verse, the third line from the third verse and so on.
For those of you who are new to this series, a cinquain is a five-line poem that has a set number of syllables (or word types) per line. Sometimes the title of a cinquain acts as a sixth line. Cinquains were invented by Adelaide Crapsey was an American poet who was inspired by the rules of Japanese poetry to create her own poetical form, the cinquain.
Here’s an example, originally written for a poetry collection set to come out later this year:

Death of Dreaming

Written on April 1, 2014, this garland cinquain is about the darker things of life.

Troll kinFrom the dark comeSlide from shadows and nightSnatching their prey from shadowed lightNightmares
NightmaresIn darkness comeFleeing he new-born dayTreading our sleep when we seek restGoblins
GoblinsKnife-edged crueltyTrait’rous beasts of the nightBut able to emerge at dayHunters
HuntersStalking our dreamsSnaring our peace and restStealing the dreams of a lifetimeHopeless
HopelessWe toss and turnFighting them in our sleepAlone, we try to defeat themOur fears
Troll kinIn darkness comeTrait’rous beasts of the nightStealing the dreams of a lifetimeOur fears
Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one reverse cinquain for each day of the week. They don’t take a lot of time, but they can be a bit tricky. Here’s one way you might want to approach them:Decide on a topic;Think of words, phrases, feelings and ideas that relate to your topic and work out the order you want to express those things in;Work out how to express each idea in the right number of syllables for the line it’s on;Write your cinquain;Check there are the right number of syllables on each line; andCentre the poem on your page. Or you can just write them as you go, letting inspiration take you where it will, but remember to check your syllables and centre your poem at the end.Enjoy!