Rogue
Lawless,
Order ignored,
A careless war bringer.
All to misdirect a fan base.
Insane.
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of ANARCHY.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Author: Ronovan
Cinquain Poetry Prompt 6: ANARCHY is your inspiration.
You don’t have to use the word in your poem, you can just use it as inspiration.
Yes, there is kind of a way of the madness of the poetry form, but you really just use the structure to create what you want in order to get your message across. There are examples of Adelaide Crapsey’s work below. She’s the one who created this style.
The Cinquain or more specifically the American Cinquain.
My Example:
Old Days
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
You can see the pattern above is as follows…
THE STRUCTURE
5 Lines with each a given number of syllables as
2
4
6
8
2
An iambic foot with the stresses by line being
1
2
3
4
1
For the first line of the poem there will be two syllables with one stressed syllable and that one being the second one, which establishes the pattern.
The Cinquain most commonly used is the American Cinquain created by Adelaide Crapsey. Although she did not write down specific rules for composing one of her Cinquains, we have a form from people who have studied her poetry and have found commonalities in her works, those being the syllable and iambic foot, stresses pattern, although the iambic foot is not a requirement. Think of iambic foot and meter as the beat of music and the poem. Every other syllable is the beat.
THE CONTENT
As much as structure dictates an American Cinquain, the content and descriptive nature of the poem is just as important. Emotion. Nature. Event. Idea. All of those can be what brings words to the poem. If you’re not accustomed to cinquain yet, or your idea of a poem is big, write your poem as long as it needs to be to get your story down. Then you start zeroing in on structure. Then you turn that original idea and those original words into such concise and descriptive wording that in just 22 syllables you tell your story.
As you tell the story, remember that often, and usually, the last line flips the story you’ve told. A negative poem ends with a positive, a positive with a negative. A story of anger ends in peace. Oppressed ends in freedom.
Using my example, I tell a story of could be an actual sunrise, emotions, or an event. It’s a pleasant and serene, inspiring tale, then with the ending it all disappears. Yes, a sunrise disappears, an event ends, the joyful emotions of love may end in total darkness and depression.
Two Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain poems:
November Night
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Trapped
Well and
If day on day
Follows and weary year
On year . . . and ever days and years . . .
Well?
LINKING BACK TO THE PROMPT:
One way to increase interest in prompt challenges is to link back or pingback to the prompt when you write your response on your blog. This can also have a couple or more extra visits to your post.
Click HERE to find out how to do a Pingback. It’s a post I created a long time ago. It includes an image showing you how to do it.
Some people like to copy and paste the challenge image into their posts. That’s okay with me.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Risen
Risen
Good news,
He has risen,
For the sake of us all.
Accept and forever be saved.
The Way.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Double Nickles – an American Style Cinquain.
Double Nickles
An age,
Given a time,
Made for a great generation.
Music, movies, a happy time.
Ah, youth.
No kliq.
Not brain, nor jock,
Not a princ, nor misft.
Not a criminal, just the fringe.
Gen X.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Fierce – an American Style Cinquain.
Fierce
Jump shot,
Step back and fly,
Logo shot one more time.
Swish, here comes another highlight.
Fever!
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of FIERCE.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Cinquain Poetry Prompt 5: FIERCE is your inspiration.
You don’t have to use the word in your poem, you can just use it as inspiration.
Yes, there is kind of a way of the madness of the poetry form, but you really just use the structure to create what you want in order to get your message across. There are examples of Adelaide Crapsey’s work below. She’s the one who created this style.
The Cinquain or more specifically the American Cinquain.
My Example:
Old Days
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
You can see the pattern above is as follows…
THE STRUCTURE
5 Lines with each a given number of syllables as
2
4
6
8
2
An iambic foot with the stresses by line being
1
2
3
4
1
For the first line of the poem there will be two syllables with one stressed syllable and that one being the second one, which establishes the pattern.
The Cinquain most commonly used is the American Cinquain created by Adelaide Crapsey. Although she did not write down specific rules for composing one of her Cinquains, we have a form from people who have studied her poetry and have found commonalities in her works, those being the syllable and iambic foot, stresses pattern, although the iambic foot is not a requirement. Think of iambic foot and meter as the beat of music and the poem. Every other syllable is the beat.
THE CONTENT
As much as structure dictates an American Cinquain, the content and descriptive nature of the poem is just as important. Emotion. Nature. Event. Idea. All of those can be what brings words to the poem. If you’re not accustomed to cinquain yet, or your idea of a poem is big, write your poem as long as it needs to be to get your story down. Then you start zeroing in on structure. Then you turn that original idea and those original words into such concise and descriptive wording that in just 22 syllables you tell your story.
As you tell the story, remember that often, and usually, the last line flips the story you’ve told. A negative poem ends with a positive, a positive with a negative. A story of anger ends in peace. Oppressed ends in freedom.
Using my example, I tell a story of could be an actual sunrise, emotions, or an event. It’s a pleasant and serene, inspiring tale, then with the ending it all disappears. Yes, a sunrise disappears, an event ends, the joyful emotions of love may end in total darkness and depression.
Two Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain poems:
November Night
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Trapped
Well and
If day on day
Follows and weary year
On year . . . and ever days and years . . .
Well?
LINKING BACK TO THE PROMPT:
One way to increase interest in prompt challenges is to link back or pingback to the prompt when you write your response on your blog. This can also have a couple or more extra visits to your post.
Click HERE to find out how to do a Pingback. It’s a post I created a long time ago. It includes an image showing you how to do it.
Some people like to copy and paste the challenge image into their posts. That’s okay with me.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Armed Forces – an American Style Cinquain.
Armed Foces
Birthdays,
Come one, come all,
The greatest show on Earth.
Two hundred and fifty is grand,
For Peace.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Cinquain Poetry Prompt 4: BOOM is your inspiration.
You don’t have to use the word in your poem, you can just use it as inspiration.
Yes, there is kind of a way of the madness of the poetry form, but you really just use the structure to create what you want in order to get your message across. There are examples of Adelaide Crapsey’s work below. She’s the one who created this style.
The Cinquain or more specifically the American Cinquain.
My Example:
Old Days
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
You can see the pattern above is as follows…
THE STRUCTURE
5 Lines with each a given number of syllables as
2
4
6
8
2
An iambic foot with the stresses by line being
1
2
3
4
1
For the first line of the poem there will be two syllables with one stressed syllable and that one being the second one, which establishes the pattern.
The Cinquain most commonly used is the American Cinquain created by Adelaide Crapsey. Although she did not write down specific rules for composing one of her Cinquains, we have a form from people who have studied her poetry and have found commonalities in her works, those being the syllable and iambic foot, stresses pattern, although the iambic foot is not a requirement. Think of iambic foot and meter as the beat of music and the poem. Every other syllable is the beat.
THE CONTENT
As much as structure dictates an American Cinquain, the content and descriptive nature of the poem is just as important. Emotion. Nature. Event. Idea. All of those can be what brings words to the poem. If you’re not accustomed to cinquain yet, or your idea of a poem is big, write your poem as long as it needs to be to get your story down. Then you start zeroing in on structure. Then you turn that original idea and those original words into such concise and descriptive wording that in just 22 syllables you tell your story.
As you tell the story, remember that often, and usually, the last line flips the story you’ve told. A negative poem ends with a positive, a positive with a negative. A story of anger ends in peace. Oppressed ends in freedom.
Using my example, I tell a story of could be an actual sunrise, emotions, or an event. It’s a pleasant and serene, inspiring tale, then with the ending it all disappears. Yes, a sunrise disappears, an event ends, the joyful emotions of love may end in total darkness and depression.
Two Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain poems:
November Night
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Trapped
Well and
If day on day
Follows and weary year
On year . . . and ever days and years . . .
Well?
LINKING BACK TO THE PROMPT:
One way to increase interest in prompt challenges is to link back or pingback to the prompt when you write your response on your blog. This can also have a couple or more extra visits to your post.
Click HERE to find out how to do a Pingback. It’s a post I created a long time ago. It includes an image showing you how to do it.
Some people like to copy and paste the challenge image into their posts. That’s okay with me.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Boom Baby! – an American Style Cinquain.
Boom Baby!
Best buds,
Constant whispers,
Turn the world on its ear.
A two headed hydra thunders.
Goes BOOM!
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of BOOM.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Cinquain prompt moving to Wednesday.
Wanted to let everyone know the Cinquain prompt from Mondays will be moving to Wednesdays starting next week with #3. I thought I would try Mondays again, like I did for 10 years with the Haiku challenge, but I don’t think it quite works.
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of Magic.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Abracadabra – an American Style Cinquain.
Abracadabra
Image
Disaster, revenge
Words of bluster and spin
Making failures to look like wins.
Mirrors!
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of Magic.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Cinquain Poetry Prompt 3: MAGIC is your inspiration.
If this is your first using the prompt, please read the whole post to get an idea of what’s going on. You don’t have to or even need to, but it can help.
You can do the prompt anytime during the week.
HOW TO USE THE PROMPT (It’s different this time.)
In the past my prompt inspiration words, or a synonym, have generally been ones to use within the poem. With the Cinquain Prompt, the inspiration is just that, an inspiration. The words do NOT need to be used, but you can. What does the word or words make you think of? That’s what you write. It doesn’t matter if we get it. If we make the link, although it would be excellent writing if we can figure it out. As long as we enjoy the poem, that’s all that matters. Well actually all that really matters is that you wrote the poem. The prompt is for you write a poem, not for us to necessairly read one.
As an example, I wanted to write about memories for my example American Cinquain when I first created the post about this new idea for a prompt challenge. As some of you may know, about 12 years or so ago I had a concussion and lost my memories. It’s still a large part of my identity today. So, memories are a big part of my life. Old Days, the poem below, is my response to my inspiration of MEMORIES.
The Cinquain or more specifically the American Cinquain.
My Example:
Old Days
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
You can see the pattern above is as follows…
THE STRUCTURE
5 Lines with each a given number of syllables as
2
4
6
8
2
An iambic foot with the stresses by line being
1
2
3
4
1
For the first line of the poem there will be two syllables with one stressed syllable and that one being the second one, which establishes the pattern.
The Cinquain most commonly used is the American Cinquain created by Adelaide Crapsey. Although she did not write down specific rules for composing one of her Cinquains, we have a form from people who have studied her poetry and have found commonalities in her works, those being the syllable and iambic foot, stresses pattern, although the iambic foot is not a requirement. Think of iambic foot and meter as the beat of music and the poem. Every other syllable is the beat.
THE CONTENT
As much as structure dictates an American Cinquain, the content and descriptive nature of the poem is just as important. Emotion. Nature. Event. Idea. All of those can be what brings words to the poem. If you’re not accustomed to cinquain yet, or your idea of a poem is big, write your poem as long as it needs to be to get your story down. Then you start zeroing in on structure. Then you turn that original idea and those original words into such concise and descriptive wording that in just 22 syllables you tell your story.
As you tell the story, remember that often, and usually, the last line flips the story you’ve told. A negative poem ends with a positive, a positive with a negative. A story of anger ends in peace. Oppressed ends in freedom.
Using my example, I tell a story of could be an actual sunrise, emotions, or an event. It’s a pleasant and serene, inspiring tale, then with the ending it all disappears. Yes, a sunrise disappears, an event ends, the joyful emotions of love may end in total darkness and depression.
Two Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain poems:
November Night
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Trapped
Well and
If day on day
Follows and weary year
On year . . . and ever days and years . . .
Well?
LINKING BACK TO THE PROMPT:
One way to increase interest in prompt challenges is to link back or pingback to the prompt when you write your response on your blog. This can also have a couple or more extra visits to your post.
Click HERE to find out how to do a Pingback. It’s a post I created a long time ago. It includes an image showing you how to do it.
Some people like to copy and paste the challenge image into their posts. That’s okay with me.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Gemini – an American Cinquain.
Gemini
Two sides,
One brain, two hearts
Confusion multiplied
Twice the amount of joy and pain.
Again?
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
The American Style Cinquain made easy.
I’ve written a couple or more posts recently on how to write an American style cinquain developed by Adelaide Crapsey. But… sometimes I can get a bit wordy. So, let’s get unwordy.
If you like Haiku, which this blog has a history of, you’ll like the cinquain. It’s 5 lines with a syllable structure of 2/4/6/8/2. This isn’t by accident. Adelaide was a fan of haiku.
Here is an example of an American cinquain I wrote:
Remember
Away
To foreign lands
And dreams of saving hopes,
Reality of breaking hearts.
Look back.
I wrote about Memorial Day and the soldiers who went to war. Some had hopes and dreams of changing the world, saving lives, and bringing freedom where there was none. Many never came back, or have since passed away, bringing sadness to their loved ones. We remember those who we’ve lost on Memorial Day.
To write an American cinquain, I took the idea I just shared and made it as concise as I could, using the most descriptive words I could think of at the time. The first four lines are one feeling and are moving forward, with the final line flipping to look back and is related to the first line.
And that’s how an American cinquain often is. Here with ‘Remember’, you can see the relationship of ‘Away’ and ‘Look back’. It can be seen in two ways. One way is those who have left, gone away, can look back after they’ve left, or secondly, it can be the loved ones looking back on the memories.
Now that you know how to write one, join the prompt each week. Leave your link in the comments of that week’s prompt and people might visit your blog to check it out.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Keep Moving – an American Style Cinquain.
Keep Moving
Hopeless.
The days, long, and taxing,
With unending smallness,
Fall over my old sanity,
Be strong!
For this weeks Cinquain Poetry Prompt of The Light.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Cinquain Poetry Prompt 2: THE LIGHT is your inspiration.
If this is your first using the prompt, please read the whole post to get an idea of what’s going on. You don’t have to or even need to, but it can help.
HOW TO USE THE PROMPT (It’s different this time.)
In the past my prompt inspiration words, or a synonym, have generally been ones to use within the poem. With the Cinquain Prompt, the inspiration is just that, an inspiration. The words do NOT need to be used, but you can. What does the word or words make you think of? That’s what you write. It doesn’t matter if we get it. If we make the link, although it would be excellent writing if we can figure it out. As long as we enjoy the poem, that’s all that matters. Well actually all that really matters is that you wrote the poem. The prompt is for you write a poem, not for us to necessairly read one.
As an example, I wanted to write about memories for my example American Cinquain when I first created the post about this new idea for a prompt challenge. As some of you may know, about 12 years or so ago I had a concussion and lost my memories. It’s still a large part of my identity today. So, memories are a big part of my life. Old Days, the poem below, is my response to my inspiration of MEMORIES.
The Cinquain or more specifically the American Cinquain.
My Example:
Old Days
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
You can see the pattern above is as follows…
THE STRUCTURE
5 Lines with each a given number of syllables as
2
4
6
8
2
An iambic foot with the stresses by line being
1
2
3
4
1
For the first line of the poem there will be two syllables with one stressed syllable and that one being the second one, which establishes the pattern.
The Cinquain most commonly used is the American Cinquain created by Adelaide Crapsey. Although she did not write down specific rules for composing one of her Cinquains, we have a form from people who have studied her poetry and have found commonalities in her works, those being the syllable and iambic foot, stresses pattern, although the iambic foot is not a requirement. Think of iambic foot and meter as the beat of music and the poem. Every other syllable is the beat.
THE CONTENT
As much as structure dictates an American Cinquain, the content and descriptive nature of the poem is just as important. Emotion. Nature. Event. Idea. All of those can be what brings words to the poem. If you’re not accustomed to cinquain yet, or your idea of a poem is big, write your poem as long as it needs to be to get your story down. Then you start zeroing in on structure. Then you turn that original idea and those original words into such concise and descriptive wording that in just 22 syllables you tell your story.
As you tell the story, remember that often, and usually, the last line flips the story you’ve told. A negative poem ends with a positive, a positive with a negative. A story of anger ends in peace. Oppressed ends in freedom.
Using my example, I tell a story of could be an actual sunrise, emotions, or an event. It’s a pleasant and serene, inspiring tale, then with the ending it all disappears. Yes, a sunrise disappears, an event ends, the joyful emotions of love may end in total darkness and depression.
Two Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain poems:
November Night
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Trapped
Well and
If day on day
Follows and weary year
On year . . . and ever days and years . . .
Well?
LINKING BACK TO THE PROMPT:
One way to increase interest in prompt challenges is to link back or pingback to the prompt when you write your response on your blog. This can also have a couple or more extra visits to your post.
Click HERE to find out how to do a Pingback. It’s a post I created a long time ago. It includes an image showing you how to do it.
Some people like to copy and paste the challenge image into their posts. That’s okay with me.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
Remember – an American Cinquain.
Remember
Away
To foreign lands
And dreams of saving hopes,
Reality of breaking hearts.
Look back.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
The Magnificent 7 of Cinquain… Styles… other than the American one.
Over the pervious two posts I’ve explained how to write an American Cinquain as developed by the early 20th century poet Adelaide Crapsey. With the style of poetry being named “American” Cinquain or a Crapseian, then there must be other types of cinquain. I don’t plan to get into a lot of detail, but I thought it would be useful to give some information. You may have written a cinquain and not realized it.
Including the American Cinquain, there are six other styles traditionally recognized. Although I suppose there would actually be seven.
Standard Cinquain
This is the original five line stanza poem with no syllable restrains and included a rhyming pattern such as ababb, abaab, or abccb. The poems are usually made up of multiple stanzas. The Standard has its beginning in medieval France.
How to write a Cinquain poem – Part 2
In the previous post I talked about the American Cinquain form created by Adelaide Crapsey and how it is a five line poem with a format of either syllables 2/4/2/8/2 or iambs of 1/2/3/4/1. You can try your hand with the first of our Cinquain Poetry Prompts that came out this past Monday. And don’t get concerned about iambs if you’re not a poetry nerd. Remember ‘nerd’ to me is a good word. Think of iambs as how many syllables are stressed in a line of poetry. Like in music there is something called meter or a beat. Or the tick tock of a clock and the tock is the stressed part. (I know, I’m over doing it. But I do that sometimes.)
Although syllables and iambs are important, the actual content is even more so. Nature. Emotions. Even an event. Here is my example:
OLD DAYS
See how
The sun rises,
Breaking over beauty,
Filling the senses with heaven
Then fades.
It can be nature, emotion, or an event. I didn’t plan for it that way. It just ended up like that after I finished and read it for the final time.
You see, the first four lines are all linked with a purpose. They are telling a story, feeling, or thought, building and building. Then in the final line, what I built is broken. Yes, there was a time where beauty and more would bring joy each morning, increasing each time, but in the end, it all fades away and I was left with nothing. This could be about a literal sunrise or perhaps a lost relationship.
It doesn’t always have to do with emotions. One reason Adelaide Crapsey’s poetry deals so much with emotions and her mortality was because of her tuberculosis at such a young age. She was only 36 when she passed.
Once you have your topic for your poem, write it. Then the work begins. The creativity begins. You look for the perfect word to give the most impact, to deliver as much of what you’re trying to relay. With so few lines and syllables, much like a Tanka, you need to be precise. Practice makes perfect. Althought, not every poem needs to be perfect. If you tried to do that, you might never share a poem with others because you’re afraid you didn’t achieve what you or others expected. Believe me, I know. I have dozens of incomplete poetry drafts sitting here in my blog I’ve never posted.
YOUTH
But me
They cannot touch,
Old Age and death … the strange
And ignominious end of old
Dead folk!
ROMA AETERNA
The sun
Is warm to-day,
O Romulus, and on
Thine olden Palatine the birds
Still sing.
NIAGRA
How frail
Above the bulk
Of crashing water bangs,
Autumnal, evanescent, wan,
The moon.
THE GUARDED WOUND
If it
Were lighter touch
Than petal of flower resting
On grass, oh still too heavy it were,
Too heavy!
“The result is a form of poetry that is short, meditative, imagistic, and above all delicate—a quality regarded as beautiful in and of itself.” litcharts.com
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
How to write a Cinquain poem – Part 1.
With the new poetry prompt having started this past Monday, (Prompt #1), I thought I could share more about the Cinquain style, and more specifically the American Cinquain.
If you know a little about languages you’ll probably realize that ‘Cinqua’ means five.
Cinquains are, in their simplest form, poems of five lines or stanza. Yes, that’s a Quintet for you know-it-alls. We like to put formulas and rules to what we do, but the truth is that it’s as simple as that… Five Lines. But we like a challenge so we put constraints on what we do to get those creative synapses going. If that’s the right way of thinking about it. I’m not looking it up.
There are various types of cinquain, one of which is the didactic cinquain taught to school aged children.
If we were writing a cinquain instead of the American Cinquain, we would be using a rhyming scheme. You could do that with the American Cinquain, but it’s not how Adelaide Crapsey developed it. In some ways, the American Cinquain gives us more freedom to be creative.
If you’ve been visiting this site for a while, you might know that Haiku has been a big part of its history. Guess what Adelaide Crapsey liked? The five line haiku poetry form called Tanka. Like a Tanka, the only true requirement of a Crapseian cinquain, yes that is another title for an American Cinquain, are the syllables.
2/4/6/8/2
Or is that the requirement?
You see, Adelaide Crapsey never wrote down what her style required. We only have a structure based on what others have come up with from studying her work. Not that they’re wrong. Some have stated the line lengths should be based on counting iambs or stressed syllables. How does that change the length from being syllables? It would instead be 1/2/3/4/1.
There is some evidence for the iambs idea, such as the following poem.
NOVEMBER NIGHT
Listen . . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.
Basically, use what you like. That’s what Adelaide did.
Read How to write a Cinquain poem – Part 2.
© 2025- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
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