3 summer cinquains

Note: These are American cinquains. They are supposed to have 22 syllables, five lines, 2/4/6/8/2, and a sense of building up to the fourth line, then release. Anything that is not poetic enough for the poem is thrown into the title, quite different from haiku which have none. It is related to tanka. This is a particular form with strict rules that I like to bend but not break.

Re-edited August 9, 2005.


At the small town bookstore

Quiet.
After vespers,
even the sunbeamed motes
soft-shoe among the coffee cups
and flies.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219c]


Last lily blooming by Plymouth Church

Petals,
torn, wilted, weep;
the stamens bending; will
holding them back. Their fall still comes,
then sleep.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219a]


Exorcise of summer

Heat seeps,
beyond the bones,
into weary muscles,
then sweats away the excess fat
and pants.

25 juni 2005
Catalogue number [162.219b]