Sunday, January 22, 2017

U.P. Winter




Dear George, 
Influenced by Japanese haiku and tanka, the cinquain is a five-line poem developed in American poetry by Adelaide Crapsey (1915).  The five lines of the cinquain have 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively.   Typically, the lines offer (1) a subject, (2) descriptive adjectives about the subject, (3) an action, (4) a feeling or effect, and (5) a conclusion.  There are several variations on the basic five-line cinquain.  One of these, the garland, is a sequence of six cinquains, the last of which is formed of lines from the preceding five (usually line one from stanza one, line two from stanza two, etc.).  Below is a garland cinquain prompted by our childhood experiences of winter on the Menominee River.
Love,
Dave



U.P. Winter

White North
Barren forests
We snowshoe toward the bend
Watching for deer and porcupine
Snow-Men

Up stream
Ice a foot thick 
Fishermen in shanties
Shivering at pot-bellied stoves
No bites

Deer cross
Fueled by hunger
Foraging for dead weeds
They struggle in the windblown drifts
Peril

Soft ice
A deer falls through
Dad pushes out the boat
But the deer sinks into the depths
Mourning

March wakes
The river melts
Flowing crystals tinkle
My mom names it “Chinese Bells Day” 
Pale skies
White North
Ice a foot thick 
Foraging for dead weeds
But the deer sinks into the depths
Pale skies



4 comments:

  1. Dave, I just found your blog today. This is everything I love about Midwestern writing and poetry - hearty, earthy, and gravitationally inviting. Thank you for your posts!
    -drh

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  2. Your poem is a triumph! I am so glad you are back

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  3. Editorite, drh, & Terry-O. Thanks for your feedback. That cheers me up on this otherwise gray day. :>)

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