Cinquain Creations from Audience at Gibson's Bookstore Reading

 

To close the debut reading from Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak this past Tuesday, I walked the audience through the creation of their own 1-minute poem about social media using a form called a cinquain. 

A standard cinquain normally involves a 5-lined poem, Line #1 containing one stress; Line #2 containing two stresses; Line #3 containing three stresses...you get the idea.) 

I modified the form for the sake of the event such that Line #1 contains one word; Line #2 contains two words, etc. I gave line-by-line prompts: for instance, specifying that the third line consist of a prepositional phrase, the fourth line use a question. 

Check out the marvelous, modified cinquain created by audience members!

Mark

Black, blue

To mark share

For whom the bell...

Tolls, clangs,, peals, rings, cracks

-John Lindberg

Different 

Red clicking

On every post, hearts scrolling

"What's your handle?"

A lonely phone case

No face recognition, No apps to distract, No sore thumbs, Not for mev

-Sophie Rose Riopel, teen editor at Under the Madness Magazine

Likes

Blue bouncing

For $3

Are you in this?

Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No

- Jenn Hill (creator of the image on the cover of Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak)

Hashtags

Cyan paints

Of simple lies

What is the point?

Impress, Celebrate, Grieve. Befriend, Compare.

-Shirley Phillips 

Gibson's Bookstore Reading from COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems

Gibson's Bookstore will be sponsoring a reading from COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems (published by Hobblebush Books, edited by Alexandria Peary) on Zoom, at 7 PM on October 8, 2020. Twelve fabulous poets will read work from the book: Anna Birch, Bill Chatfield, Heather Crowley, Margaret Johnson, Grace Mattern, Patrice Pinette, jennifer Edwards, Heather Radl, Joyce Ray, Carla Schwartz, Maren Tirabassi, and Susan Zelie.

Registration is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/121762939229/

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Hampshire in March, it became clear that April—National Poetry Month—would not be celebrated with live poetry readings and writers’ workshops as in past years. In an effort to provide a channel for creatively navigating our common experiences, New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary set out to host two virtual poetry writing groups each week in April. At the end of the month, New Hampshire residents were invited to submit their work for consideration in an anthology of poems addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 writers submitted their work—each with a unique voice and a fresh perspective on the pandemic’s impact in New Hampshire.

In her introduction, Alexandria writes, “Fifty-four of the state’s poets are represented in this anthology, writing of job loss, loneliness and love, masks, social distancing, surreal visitors, uncertainty, graduations deferred, grief, neighborly and less-than-neighborly acts, observing the beginning of the pandemic and making projections about the future, recalibrating or confirming what it means to be human, to be a resident of this region. In a remarkable range of poetic form and style, these writers provide a thirty-day snapshot of what life was like in the Granite State in April of 2020.

To help support New Hampshire residents impacted by COVID-19, Hobblebush Books will donate $2 to the New Hampshire Food Bank for every copy of COVID Spring sold.