Oddquains

The oddquain is a modern 5-line, syllabic form developed by Glenda L. Hand. It's essentially a Crapsey cinquain with 1 fewer syllable on each line: 1/3/5/7/1 syllables. This pattern of syllables prevents easy use of meter (e.g. iambic or trochaic, or even the three-syllable feet like amphibrach or dactyl) on the line level.

Notes

I try to stick to a trochaic meter, which, given the odd number of syllables, means the poem starts and ends with stressed syllables. This makes more sense to me given that the first and last lines are just one syllable each.

Poems

  1. 2025-09-13

    Dark
At sundown—
Cloudprows breach the sky,
Bombarding us with laughter-
Light.

    I thought about starting this one off with “Grim” instead of “Dark”, but I wanted the poem to be an explosion of action out of passivity, a void, and “Grim” was a bit too emotive. Also, this whole poem went through so many revisions so quickly, including one Crapsey cinquain version with a different bent.

  2. 2025-09-10
    Driftwood Eden

    Build
A driftwood
Eden here anew—
But first pull up the selfish
Weeds.

    Thought about adding a more explicit second half-ish to make it a butterfly oddquain, but I figured I should just trust that people who get the poem will get the poem.

  3. 2025-05-23

    Game
The world in
Golf club politics,
Where dunes of teeth eat courage
Whole.

  4. 2025-05-01

    Still
And silent,
Watch the meadow deer—
Suddenly, a symmetry.
Ah,

    I tried to use the weird, halting structure (due to fitting even-sized feet to odd-syllabled lines) for effect here.