Profound Pigments

A colorful Crown of Cinquain

Red thoughts
Read by poets
Ready to read colors
Readily sharing love pumping
Red hearts

Blue points
Blew into mind
Blueing feelings blowing
Bluesy tunes play my pen writing
Blue notes

Yellow
Yells at my fear
Yelling at words written
Yelled in silence turning my brain
Mellow

Black lives
Blacks that matter
Blacked out social windows
Blacking into society
Black rights

White knights
Whitened by truth
Whitening the darkness
Whiter than midnight under Moon's
White nights

Author's Note

I've become obsessed with color. I couldn't resist the mellow yellow thing. I was going to write my grey brain turning yellow. Writing does mellow fear.

I am a white man who has never really written much about social issues. I feel I need to explain the last 2 Cinquain. Every day I hear black people push the past into the stream of media. Righteously as that may be I feel like it can have the effect of perpetuating the past. Where I come from most people judge others by the content of their character. I hope a day comes when the past stays there and we all see only our present and future working together. It is not lost on me that the 'White' Cinquain leads into a terrible part of the past. That was not my intention. It was fantasy about knights and moons. I have to admit I like the double meaning it carries. I feel like the majority of white people do try to light the darkness of the past and do white right!

Reviews

[Richard🖌]

A well struck piece, Bill 🌾

Quirky and clever, each line and verse portrays an exceptionally relatable psychological thought, feeling, emotion, fantasy, or sociopolitical comment.
Cinquains layered by R,B,Y(one rogue M),B and W alliterative homonyms … a very interesting, creative technique to compose-in with this syllabically rhythmic form, Bill. It adds a brightly entertaining timbre* and ambiance to the whole; very uniquely different.

Your form is actually a "CINQ-CINQUAIN": from the French, meaning "five groupings of five."
The Cinq-Cinquain consists of five Cinquain verses.
Each Cinquain has five lines, with two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively,
with twenty-two syllables per verse about anything; aligned left or centered.
If one were to Google Cinquain, Cinq Cinquain, Crown of Cinquain, or Garland of Cinquain, it would not be surprising to find quite a confusing number of definitions and examples, each somewhat different from each other. Then, there is the classical era of the Cinquain with rhymes and totally different syllable count … on and on it goes; how is it one knows?

In-any-event, Bill, I have sincerely enjoyed your excellent version! ⁓ Richard🖌

*"timbre" | 'tamber : sound quality, tonality, resonance.

[William Michael Reeves]

One knows by knowing one such as you! Thank you Richard. For both the nice review, and the information about the form. Interesting you should review this. I was just talking to someone about Cinquain and wish I had a better understanding of the form to share with them. Googling gets you started, but not always on the right path. And often an incomplete path. Very confusing for sure! I will be googling Conquain right away. As for that rouge M, I couldn't resist. I had it written for Yellow there, but that Donovan song is like an earworm. Thank you again. The timbre of your review is felt deep in my pen!

[Richard🖌]

🎵They call it ♫ mellow yellow! 🎶
(Conquain is a typo; should read Classical Cinquain … mea culpa, Mi Amice.)

[Richard🖌]

🎵They call ME ♫ mellow yellow! 🎶
Sheesh, don't get olde! ; /

[William Michael Reeves]

Too late! Right behind you.

You'll get a kick out of this. I searched high and low for Conquain. I didn't catch the wild goose, but I did get an egg. I Learned a lot about Cinquain. Mirror and butterfly Cinquain. I read a Quintet by Poe, which I believe was the form you mentioned with rhyme patterns. We will have to delve into it all after tending to the business at hand, which is nearly complete.

Not so sure I would call you mellow, my fine fellow! At times you've turned my mind to jello, when all I thought I said was, hello. But I'm very glad we have found a flow. And your energy, in my poetry, is starting to show.

Thank you Richard

[Richard🖌]

You make it a challenging delight. : )

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

You forgot purple rain lol one of my fave two words
Loved your poem of colours
Beautifully writ !
Well done 👍 loved this !! Till I was red in the face

[William Michael Reeves]

I didn't forget purple rain Julie. Wanted to do all the colors. My original title was primary pigments, so I was stuck with the black and white of those three and the five needed for a crown. But now that you turned my attention to it, if I had written this as a garland of Cinquain the sixth would have been pretty cool.

Red thoughts
Blew into mind
Yelling at words written
Blacking into society
White nights

Thanks Julie. Hope you found some cool blue to mellow your yellow after you read red in my space.

[Betty Hermelee]

I love all the twists of words and their various meanings; I love the colors to describe moods and thoughts on society; I really like the poem’s structure and play on words.and since I’m an artist it seems almost like an abstract painting… colors all separated into neat squares to form a pallet of extraordinary visions.
Best
B.

[William Michael Reeves]

The structure of a Cinquain is elegant. Then something about stringing them together in a Crown or Garland creates beautiful balance in the look of a poem. My wordplay kind of forced the meaning to write itself in a way. Thanks Betty. I should check your picture page. Do you have your art posted or with your poems. I think I remember we talked about that maybe. I'll look.

[Betty Hermelee]

You’re very welcome!

[Neville]

.. Change is maybe the only constant in what should be a beautiful multihued world .. I like the words you dressed this page in .. and whilst I acknowledge many of the wrongs committed against various groups of people throughout history & the numerous motivations behind such wrongs .. they did surely happen and we must acknowledge that they happened & not try to destroy all evidence of them .. for what else, in years to come shall we learn from .. Neither do I subscribe to the collective guilt that seems to grip so called civilised society .. If I do something wrong and later realise it, then I will surely apologise .. but I struggle to apologise for what my ancestors may or may not have done .. Like I have already said .. change is probably the only constant .. customs, values and beliefs all change, as does culture and society itself ................... I could probably go on and on but it has been a long period of on call and I am knackered Nevertheless, I am glad you posted this well crafted bit o poetry sir .. Neville

[William Michael Reeves]

Wow! When I write something like this I'm trying to fold big ideas into a small model. Then to read you unfold that same idea after reading it is so gratifying. I could go on and on as well. All peoples have been wronged at some point in history or another. When it's in our face all the time hard to get past it. And most of us are past it. Frustrating how a minority of voices become the majority of media. On and on......

[Neville]

the occasional rant is good for the soul .. maybe .. and you are good for this one .................. N

[Writergurl]

Love that last stanza, love how you wove the color schemes into word play, awesome write!

[William Michael Reeves]

Words are like Tinker Toys. Stack 'em up and see how they fall. Thanks Writergurl.

[Miss Sharon]

Not only have you become obsessed with color, perhaps also you've become quite taken with synonyms! Your use of them in this awesome bit of poetic prosody is amazing! ~Sharon

[William Michael Reeves]

I'm quite taken with words in general. Thank you. I just went and looked up prosody. Feels good to learn something. Look out! Here comes some more versification....I think you'll like today's poem. Been prosodizing on it for a couple days.

[Miss Sharon]

LOL Prosodizing?? Is that a word?? ~Sharon

[William Michael Reeves]

It is now! The phone asked if I wanted to add it to the dictionary. So once it's in there it becomes a legitimate word. Write?

[Cherrie Palmer]

I see you are still on the color theme. Excellent blending of color, mood and personas of mellowing yellows 💛

[William Michael Reeves]

I'd have to turn my poets card in if I didn't give it a go. And I really like the form writing and fitting a message into it.

I just read your poem with the Noodle 'Socks'. I haven't reviewed it yet because I wanted to find out who wrote what? Did you post it too?

[Cherrie Palmer]

No I didn't post that one. I let him post it. I always enjoy writing with Gene. It is easy to write with him.
And as far as who wrote what I'll have to look and see. :)