My Cinquain

Do you know me?

If your life depended on it, would you recognize me just from looking at the cartooned photo in my profile box or my eyes alone? Do you know the real Mimi Lenox?

I had to ask myself that very question today as I worked on an online community art project called in cinq, authored and created by a sensational young college student named Adria Balgassi. I learned of the project through Savvyology's site, another extraordinarily talented blogger who'd just awarded me a Rockin' Girl Blogger badge. In her post, she directed readers to a site called in cinq. I was amazed, and got caught up in the haunting self-portrait photographs and cinquain poetry submitted by bloggers near and far. Some were whimsical, a few preachy, and more than a few I'd classify "a cry for help." Believe it or not, it's not another meme. It's a university project that blossomed into a beautiful page of poetry.

A cinquain is a traditionally simple expression of poetry with five lines written to a specific formula. This assignment, per Adria's nine word limit, I found to be much harder than it initially appeared. I tried to answer the questions. Line 1: One word that REPRESENTS you. One WORD? Represents me to whom? Family? Friends? Blogword? Myself? Should I spit comedy or philosophy.....silly or sad? Then I realized this was a serious assignment and a legitimate question. I had to come up with one verbal mantra to wear with every hat I owned - one central essence of Mimi Lenox. Oh the pressure.

I scribbled notes on a notepad beside me like I was finishing a paper for college and came up with chicken scratch that looked like this: intuitive bold whimsical artsy procrastinator silly arguably-sane sensible vain expressive articulate eclectic hard-headed analytical (no kidding).....
I settled on COMPLEX.
Big surprise.

Then I changed it.
Not surprising.

To FICKLE.
No, that's not right either.

Line 2: Two words to DESCRIBE you.
TWO? Here we go again. Who IS Mimi Lenox???

Line 3: Three words that SHOW you. Line 4: Two words that EXPRESS you.Line 5: One word for the ESSENCE of you.

It all sounds a little narcissistic. Oh wait. Three crooked letters or four? And how do you spell S ES S s in the plural??!! Excuse me......poor speller Looking up n-a-r-c-.....Oh, it was right. Decent speller Never mind. Adding braggy to the list above.

It took a while but I did finish my cinq project complete with a picture I played with in Photoshop way too long. Excuse me....adding narcissistic to the list. Here's my finished poem and self-portrait, ready to submit to the site. I encourage you to do one yourself. It's fun.

But exhausting.

After all this self-examination, I find now that I'm conflicted about my complexity (adding to the list...) and need therapy. If you'd like to wallow and slip on the Freudian couch yourself, see instructions at the bottom of this post and you, too, can be confused.

Why can't I just do mindless online personality widget games to measure my libido like everybody else? (OK OK! adding c-o-m-p-l-i-c-a-t-e-d..)

Don't say it. Adding self-absorbed. Gee, I think I'm going to have to start over now.

woman, eternal, east of here
unwritten
complex earth
fiery sanguine rain spirit frees peace
P.S. Back to the drawing board. I think I need a cinquain for every day of the week depending on what mood my pencil skirt is in. Do you think she'll mind? I'll ask Adria and get back with ya.

Adding F-I-C-K-L-E......
I made this one for peace globes.
woman, on a globe, bloggingham palace

spinning
hope dreams
color the world
bloggers speak
peace

Ahh...that's better. Adding P-U-R-P-O-S-E

GUIDELINES - Go to in cinq for complete instructions on how to submit your work. Seriously, this is a fantastic site! UPDATE: I just found my cinquain on Adria's site. Click the badge to see the result. Now go do one yourself!