Chained
a collaborative cinquain chain by Tamyka Bell, Heath Houston, Michael Ramsburg, Jackie Ann, C. Duhnne, Tim Cremin, marika bianca, Patrick Faller, Rachel B. Baxter, Michelle Zanoni, BHD, Onimisi Onipe, and Renae Tobias
We fade,
still anchored fast
to times gone by. They bind,
remind us: evils long lost may
find us.
Find us
in our numbers,
my loves, we are legion.
Strike the colors, green and white. Now
we write!
We write
mindful ballads,
croon dying vestiges
of bygone eras which we now
recall.
Recall
musical nights
entwined; our song lifted
stars, kissed comets, showed us the way
back home.
Back home,
where we were told
we could be whoever —
so we chose to run. Run away
with me?
With me
you’re meant to be,
not for the ring, no chain
around your neck, just two hearts linked
by love.
By love,
a heart pumps fire
through hungry veins, moving —
lustful earth shaken by thunder;
I wait.
I wait,
considering
angels, lightning looses
limbs we chained swings to, hoping for
children.
Children
we are, as we
never can grow up and
out of these dreams, wild and ever
boundless.
Boundless
ocean music.
Come rumble, rise and crash
into the shore of our bodies.
Repeat.
Repeat
isochronous
meters. A synchronous
felicity ripple, swell, rise,
echo.
Echo
in deep void of
interwoven fabric
shifting in spacetime, binding us
in chains.
In chains,
Milestone weighted;
Descending slow, steady.
Abyssal soul revealed; brightly
We fade.
(13 stanzas, completed 17 December 2016)
Sources
Tamyka Bell: Chained opening stanza
Heath Houston: Knights of the Word
Michael Ramsburg: We Write
Jackie Ann: Vibes
C. Duhnne: Explorers.
Tim Cremin: Links
marika bianca: by love
Patrick Faller: While
Rachel B. Baxter: Children, We Are
Michelle Zanoni: Ocean Music
BHD: Re-play
Onimisi Onipe: Echoes
Renae Tobias: (untitled)
What’s a collaborative chain cinquain?
A cinquain is a poem of five lines with syllable count 2/4/6/8/2 (often iambic — but not always) and no set rhyme scheme.
A cinquain chain is formed by repeating the last line of one cinquain stanza as the first line of another cinquain stanza, and so on, until a final stanza closes the loop by ending with the first line of the first stanza. (Not clear? Check out The Poets Garret.)
This form lends itself perfectly to collaboration, with each stanza able to stand alone as a poem in itself, but also contributing to the overall shape of a larger piece…and I’m keen to give it a shot.
How will it work?
I’m looking for up to fifteen players to contribute a cinquain stanza to the chain in an assigned order, building off the last line of the previous stanza.
When it’s your turn, simply:
- Write your cinquain as a new story on Medium. (This is different from how we did the renga, because it’s a smaller, more manageable project.)
- At the bottom of your poem, add this link This poem is part of Chained: a collaborative cinquain chain on Chalkboard. (Like that, with the link, or you can turn it into one of the fancy Medium links if you like.)
- Add the tag Chained Cinquain and whatever other tags you like. (I like to use Poetry, Cinquain and Collaboration.)
- Submit your draft cinquain to your preferred Medium publication, or publish it directly. Please make sure the link here doesn’t go missing.
- Let me know your cinquain is live, either by a Twitter DM to @tamyka or by tagging me in a Medium post.
I’ll add your stanza to the chain in this original post, and then make sure the next player knows it’s their turn.
The work-in-progress and final poem will be published in Chalkboard with all authors listed in the subtitle and copyright shared by all contributors. If you wish to publish the full chain cinquain elsewhere, you’ll need to get permission from all the other contributors, but you’re free to republish your own stanza wherever you like, with a link to the group project (because we’ll appreciate it).
Want to play?
We’re full up for this poetry project, but if you want to join in next time, let me know in a response below. Or—even better—start another poetry project for Chalkboard!
Please don’t write your stanza yet until you know where you fit in the chain…but of course, write as many poems as you like in the meantime.
Updated: the order of play is here.
Special heads-up to Jackie Ann, BHD, Andy Meyer, Rachel B. Baxter, Heath Houston, Renae Tobias as former collaborators, to the prolific cinquain writer Michael Ramsburg, and to C. Duhnne as someone who has recently published a cinquain chain. And—why not?—to Alex Beckett, because Five by Five was great.
