The English word quinzaine comes from the French word qunize, meaning fifteen. A quinzaine is an unrhymed verse of fifteen syllables.
These syllables are usually distributed among three lines: seven syllables in the first line, five in the second line, and three in the third line (7/5/3). The first line makes a statement. The next two lines ask a question relating to that statement.
With thanks to Shadow Poetry: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/quinzaine.html
MARIE ELENA’S QUINZAINE
All’s all and that’s all all is.
Are y’all still with me?
Anyone?
😀
© Copyright Marie Elena Good – 2013
WALT’S QUINZAINE:
Love speaks in hushed tones.
Hear its whisper?
Will it seduce your heart?
© Copyright Walter J. Wojtanik – 2013
POETIC BLOOMINGS 
Responses
Love it, Marie!! Walt, yours is gorgeous!
Light is vanishing all round;
Who will you let in?
God or dark?
Dark’s enveloping this world;
Can’t you come to Him
To find peace?
© Copyright Erin Kay Hope – 2013
Beautiful, Erin…
Thanks, Hen. ❤
🙂 !!
Great advice, Erin, in your excellent poem.
Thank you, Salvatore!! I’m glad you liked it.
beautiful, Erin!
Well said Erin!
Thanks, Janet and Amanda!
Marie, this me’all is with you! Walt you old romantic you.
Did you know that in France the word for a fortnight is a quinzaine: obviously a week has 7½ days here, but I must always be asleep on the extra half!
Fifteen days are not two weeks
France has got it wrong –
strange mistake.
I am drowning in Napo prompts. When I come up for air I shall visit more of you lovely poeming friends.
!! 🙂 Love those NaPo prompts!
I admire your stamina, Viv! With all the different daily prompts through April out here, I’m amazed at how many haven’t left our garden in the dust! 😉
You all ROCK!
Marie Elena
Vivienne, do the French rest on that half day or is the extra 12 hours simply an opportunity to prolong la bonne vie?
Wow, Viv, that’s interesting! I really like your poem as well. 🙂
Reality bites oft times.
But what else is there?
Bubble baths?
Walt – sweet
Marie – all’s well that ends well and yours did – funny.
Good one, Debi. From reality to a soothing escape from reality: the bubble bath!
Hee, hee Bubble baths, yes!! 🙂 !!
🙂 YES!
Nice one, Debi! Reality and then a bubble bath…wonderful! 🙂
Good one, Debi!
Meg: 🙂 ; Walt: SO DARN BEAUTIFUL!!
I NEVER GIVE UP
Stubborn, I stick to my guns.
Can you say as much?
Challenge ME?
#
Sounds like an exact description of me…wish it didn’t…
Love this, Sal!
NONSTOP TIME
Father Time, you tick me off.
Must you always tock?
Can’t you rest?
#
Yes, old Time can be annoying at times, can’t he? I love this quinzaine, Sal!
😀
Erin, Viv, Debi, and Sal: Great offerings this morning!
Thanks for the comments. I can’t take the credit for the funny first line of mine. Whenever quoting Romans “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (or other ALL-inclusive verses), Pastor Terry at our church would say, “All means all and that’s all all means.” Love that, and it’s great for kids. They get it and remember it. 😉
Marie Elena
🙂 LOVE it, oh and Walt…I’ve sort of come to expect you to tug on them thar ole’ heart-strings. So beautiful.
He must be such a neat guy! My pastor is also the principal of our small school (he has such a funny sense of humor!) so I get to see him nearly everyday. He has little things like that that he says sometimes. 😉
Feelings
Into the ethers of Life…
What is mystery?
And, reality?
ah, the gossamer threads of poetry! LOVE!
Ahh… “gossamer threads…” Lovely! Thank you, my friend!!
As “William” says, “That is the question.” I like it Henrietta
Thank you, so much, Debi!
Lovely, Hen!
Aww, thank you, Erin!
Oh, `ethers of life’ – how exotic!
It’s the tenth day of April.
How will we spend it?
Taste or waste?
Well mine was spent working hard: detailing a truck inside and out. I don’t think it was wasted. 😉 Nice one, Janet!
Ahh… don’t you just Love the feeling of a job well-done?!! 🙂 !
Yes! And also a quiet night of watching baseball afterward. 🙂
Hee, hee… puppies, poetry and taxes for me… 😀 !!
No doubt, life is a challenge.
How does one respond?
Truth or dare?
Nice, Daniel!
I like this one!
Love this, Daniel.
I think an edit is in order, and I’ll give it (them) a title:
Koan I
No doubt, life is suffering..
How does one respond?
Truth or dare?
Koan II
No doubt, life is a challenge.
How does one respond?
Play or hide?
Interesting…I like them both! 🙂
Chocolate, I hear your call.
Why so insistent?
Can’t you wait?
Never. Now I have to get into the bag of Hershey’s choc chips!
No, it won’t ever wait…mean old chocolate! 😀
Ha, ha, ha…
Mmmm…
Orange cat, crouching on the post.
Are your thoughts benign?
Or deadly?
Yep. We have a neighbor cat we call Hitler. And not just because he has the ‘stache.
Marie Elena
Aw! Orange kitties are my favorite! It was probably just trying to decide where to go for its next meal…that’s not benign! 😉
hehe, no it usually isn’t … and they have such bad manners – they play with their food
Yeah I know…I just love orange cats though! 😀
Little girls dressed as women.
What are you wearing?
And make-up?
One of my pet peaves. Grrrr. Somebody needs to talk sense into the mothers.
Marie Elena
I agree!
I also agree. I hate our “sexy” culture.
Oh how right you are, Misky! I look around at the girls my age and wish that they all had the amazing parents and the wonderful story that I have been given!
And just as an aside, I don’t have my makeup yet. I’m waiting till 17 or 18 😉
Good for you, Erin!!
[…] for Poetic Bloomings, InForm Wednesday French Poetic form: Quinzaine (7/5/3) First line is a statement, lines 2 and 3 are […]
the pollen wars continue. i’ve been miserable for a week, but misery can make good poeming, i reckon.
Spring has sprung with fangs and claws.
Sniffing the flowers?
Tempting fate?
Prednisone cannot alone
cure me of spring. Will
you speak love?
Oh Jane, I am so sorry. My mom and older sister get like that as well. It must be awful…but it did give you a wonderful poem! 🙂
!! “…misery can make good poeming…” 🙂 !
Jane, it just did make good poetry. I love “with fangs and claws” that is so apt. Allergies hurt!
Janet, this is totally random but I’ve been copying the different forms to try someday from the list under “In-Form Wed.” tab and came across your Carpe Diem (October 10th, 2012 at 5:28 PM) “Morning”. That was simply beautiful – I loved it.
Love this, Jane. You have company in my husband who has been miserable since Spring began.
Thanks for your support, friends (she wheezes). This is the worst year for me and “pollination”. Thanks, Debi.
I walk alone among you.
Do you see me here?
Do you care?
(Okay that was totally depressing and totally fictional in case you were wondering. Going to go try a happier one.)
I like it though…I seem to like sad poems best like “Mariana” or “The Wasteland”.
I like it also!
Winter will not leave my side.
Oh where, where is Spring?
Where are you?
(We are suppose to get 8-12 inches of snow tonight and into tomorrow. I’m so done with winter.)
Now that is depressing. The forecast, I mean. Your poem is sad…I hope spring is soon in your neck of the woods!
Grr, that must be frustrating!! Hope you get some spring sunshine very soon!
Warmth to you, Michelle…
[…] In-form Poets Wednesday – Quinzaine (poeticbloomings.com) […]
Please eat chocolate every day.
Who says this to you?
Wait. Say what?
Holding the phone to my ear,
they appear. Mom? Mom?
Can I have…?
(There. I finally found a bit of humor.)
Two thumbs up!
Marie Elena
Awesome!!
😀
First of all, let me say that I’ve not had so much fun this early in the morning with poetry in a long time. I love this form. Second, I took my cue from Marie and did a couple before doing a more serious one. Both tones worked for me, which is a great little thing to know. So here goes. Enjoy.
Hair Loss
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
He wasn’t fuzzy,
though, was he?
Seaside
Suzie saw sea shells in sand.
Did she sift said sand
For sea shells?
Writing Home
My letters contain my life.
Can you read between
Lines of hope?
I love “Writing Home” …!
Aw, thanks. Some of these just pop out and I never know the source. Or maybe I do and just don’t want to look at it too closely. Glad you liked it.
“… Some of these just pop out…” I hear ya!! 🙂 !!
🙂
Lovin’ these, Clauds! Try reading “Seaside” outloud 3 times fast! LOL!
Marie Elena
I have, Marie. I think I invented a new tongue twister without meaning to. Glad you liked them. I’m always using this kind of thing for one project or another. They can lighten anything in tone.
Love all three! Especially your alliteration one. 🙂
Thank you, Erin. They were fun to do.
!! 😀 !!
Thanks, Hen.
Writing Home is wonderfully clever.
Thank you so much, Sara. I’m glad you liked it. Clever? No, my girl, merely telling things true. Aren’t all letters home in two languages; the one with words, and the one spoken in silence?
Good point!
🙂
Sun-colored mare greets the storm.
To clash with the sky?
Or submit?
(c) Amanda Turek Ryan 2013
Woo hoo good one Amanda.
This is my friend Amanda, everyone. Amanda, everyone.
Tks Connie, Charmed, great site!
Welcome, Amanda!! You’re off to a great start!! And of course, any friend of Connie’s is a friend of ours. 😀
Marie Elena
Beautiful! I want a sun colored mare!
Yes… Lovely… “sun-colored” !! Welcome Hbw! 🙂
So beautiful, Amanda.
Never more shall I stand down
It’s not in my blood
Nor my will
Universal or Disney
So much fun awaits
We’ll see both
:)!
You cannot straddle the fence
What if your feet slip
That’ll hurt
Love all three, but especially your first…it’s not in my nature either.
Ivy climbs the shadowed walls.
Is she curious
or just bored?
Sweet! Ivy is one of the prettiest plants, I think.
Oh! I wonder…
A light danced from the attic.
Was it a party?
Of fairies?
Ooh! And was it? I hope it was, I love fairies! 😉
Aw, SO SWEET, I, too, love the magic of fairies… !! 😀 !!
A fanciful winner, RJ.
Coffee spilled on the counter.
Are overturned cups
really drained?
Ha! Sounds like my house! With ten people in it, there’s bound to be lots of spills. 😉
Ha, ha, ha…
Spring was here just last Monday
But where did it Go?
More snow, ice?
It was seventy degrees
Where’s my winter coat?
Where’s my gloves?
Good excuse to stay in bed.
What time is breakfast?
Hot coffee?
Oh, that’s terrible! I can’t even relate: we had one day of snowfall this winter, and that was it. Hopefully it will be spring again for you very soon!
Your last stanza made me smile…
Midwest got hammered by Old Man Winter. We came out ok but things are a mess with downed trees, power lines and poles. Thought it was Spring.
Autism
He would not let them touch him.
Why won’t he come near?
Why, the fear?
Sadness…why, indeed…
Oh, so mysterious… 😦
Thanks, Hen.
I know I’m probably breaking like every rule here, but I strung a bunch of these together to create one longer poem. Only the very last two lines are in question form.
Sea’s Silent Call
With a quiet sigh
Another wave rolls over
The grey sand;
With unvarying
Regularity, the sea
Pounds the surf:
A wondrous song of
Sea and sand, stirring longing
In my heart,
Tugging earnestly
At my soul; can’t you hear sea’s
Silent call?
© Copyright Erin Kay Hope – 2013
Oh, gorgeous… sometimes, in order to Live Fully, a teeny, tiny breakage is in order… 🙂 !!
Thanks, Hen!! 🙂
I can hear it
Oh, so can I! One of my greatest wishes is to travel across the sea one day…on a ship, not by airplane. 😉
I place my trust in the Lord.
Of whom shall I fear?
Where is yours?
Good one, David! I can tell you do. Mine is also firmly planted there…
Thanks Erin – I could tell as well – your verses tell where your heart is. It’s a beautiful thing to see a young person show their faith/love of God, and then to see it expressed in such an artful form as your poetry – that is a gift well used and well honored. God smiles on you.
Aww, thanks so much, David! Smiles to you. 🙂
🙂 !
Light of Love
Sun’s rays lighting a dark room;
What is this magic?
Liquid gold?
I can’t touch, but I feel it;
How’s this possible?
Why the warmth?
Light is stronger than mere dark;
Cannot you feel His
Love in it?
© Copyright Erin Kay Hope – 2013
Love this, Erin!!
Yes!