POET

Simply Adelaide Crapsey
By M. E. Wood

Deadlines pursue, followed by word count and line stipulations. Protracted requirements reside over brevity, for length’s sake. Verbose, with nothing said. Confusion rattles my head with bits of life’s raw purity. Cinquain lady of prose, shows the beauty to be savored. An eloquent poetess, a Vassar star. Sweet Adelaide knows which words and where they are. Her voice speaks, Seek not loquacious lies but terse truths. Her creative spontaneity forever remembered on November nights and in moon-cast shadows. Protected by precise denominations. My pages wait, riddled with syllables of twenty-two.

*published in Sol Magazine / December 2003

COMMENTS: An eloquent tribute to the inventor of the Cinquain. "Bits of life's raw purity" is an excellent description of the form. The idea of spontaneity being "protected by precise denominations," reminiscent of Wordsworth's "Nuns Fret Not," is a nice reminder for those who sometimes fret too much over forms and requirements.