Session 11: Pensée

[Brigid Briton]

For those not familiar with this English poetry form with a French name, a pensée (meaning a thought) is a five line poem with a strict formula:

The first line is the subject.
The second line is a description.
The third line contains action.
The fourth line gives the setting.
The fifth line finishes the thought.

In addition to the above, the pensée has a prescribed syllable count:

2-4-7-8-6

I'm hoping some of you will try your hand at this. It should be especially appealing to fans of the 5-7-5 haiku construct.

Here’s my attempt:

Kittens,   (subject) (2 syllables)
calico twins,   (description) (4 syllables)
chase invisible fairies  (action) (7 syllables)
in my sun-drenched summer garden,   (setting) (8 syllables)
fur-covered acrobats.   (finishes the thought) (6 syllables)

There isn't a lot more to it than that. Sounds simple, right? (Just as with all poetry, there's so much more to it than a simple, or even complex formula.) You must add the missing ingredient: feeling.

To make it easy to get the order of the lines down pat, here's a great link for writing an "instant" pensée:

ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/pensee.htm

It really makes the line part, at least, easy. Give it a try and post your results below! I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Brigid

[Reilley]

Always love learning new forms, Brigid, thanks for this.

Here is my first attempt.

Hard truth,
sharp-edged and spare,
dispelling falsehoods like smoke
in the space between wrong and right
is all I know of Love.

[Brigid Briton]

Oh, Bravo, Reilley! This is a good one. Did you use the little "Instant Pensée Creator" or do it the hard way. It about drove me nuts until I found that nifty little tool! I think this is a really fun form too, a great way too get a little bit of poetic discipline (at least for me!)

Thanks for being the first to jump in!

[Brigid Briton]

I was just challenged by another poet on Twitter, who likes to write poetry about various lavatories he encounters in nature, to come up with another pensée. Here's my attempt.

Warning:
The Golden Rule:
While camping in the boondocks,
way out in the back-of-beyond:
Never eat yellow snow.

[Cory Raymond]

Hi Brigid and Reilley,

I finally decided to take the leap and try my hand. Your pensee poems run the gamut from the super-serious (Reilley) to the cute (kittens) to the funny (yellow snow).

I used the little pensee creating tool and this is what I came up with. It falls somewhere in between, I think:

Poems
brief and pithy
making their bashful debut
in the spotlight on Form Focus
are the stars of the show.

Go ahead, pensee, take a bow!

[blackbird]

I enjoy these challenges love learning something new...so I will give a go


Cold air
rushing, blowing
freezing me down to my bones
in my room at my desk at night
quickly crawl into bed