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October 1, 2026

Harmattan: a cinquain

Harmattan

A cinquain

running
running, running,
the cheetah chasing prey
running like the Harmattan wind 
away


_{—Lesley Scoble, September 2026}

Audio — Harmattan 🎵

Harmattan | Lyrics and Sound Design©️Lesley Scoble | Performed by AI Actor

NOTES
The Harmattan is a dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara across West Africa during the dry season. Carrying fine desert sand over great distances, it can sweep across the plains with considerable force. In the poem, the Harmattan serves as a symbol of speed and power, with the cheetah imagined as running even faster than the wind itself.

W3 Poetry Prompt #231
This is a rare attempt at writing the cinquain, so I’d especially like to thank Khadija Shabbir (‘She Who Knows All’) for inspiring me to take on the challenge of writing a poem with so few words. To read the full prompt guidelines, please see Khadija’s prompt details below.

Khadija’s prompt: Repeat after yourself

I invite you to write a cinquain, a five-line poem, using repetition to give one word or phrase new meaning as the poem unfolds.

I’d like you to begin at least three lines with the same word or short phrase. This is called anaphora. Think of how a repeated word can sound like a heartbeat, a chant, or a prayer: each time it returns, it can carry a little more feeling.

Here’s what we’re going for:

Five lines: Use this syllable pattern: 2–4–6–8–2. That means two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the fourth, and two in the last.
A repeated beginning: Start at least three of those lines with the same word or short phrase.
Any subject: I welcome poems about anything that catches your attention: a feeling, a place, a memory, or an ordinary moment.
An optional twist: By the last line, try to make your repeated word feel different from when it first appeared.

Here’s an example:

slow rain,

slow steam, slow light,

slow hands around the cup,

slow breath, slow hush, slow thanks for this,

slow home.

In this example, I use “slow” first to describe the rain, then the unhurried movements of someone holding a cup. By “slow home,” I want the word to suggest the comfort of being somewhere we can take our time.

I’d love to see where your chosen word takes you. Have fun!

My thanks, as always, must go to our inimitable host, David, The Skeptics Kaddish, for his constant encouragement and inspiration.

And my thanks to you, the reader, for dropping by.