Please don't confuse a sestina with a siesta...

Writers Digest is a magazine that I enjoy reading, and one of my favorite regular features is the magazine’s “Poetic Forms” item.

This item describes an unusual form of poetry, and encourages readers to try these forms for themselves. In the May/June issue, the featured poetic form was the “sestina.”

According to the magazine, “the sestina is a seven-stanza poem that rotates the same six words at the end of each line, except for the final tercet, which fits two end words into each line. Here is the end word pattern for each stanza:

1: A, B, C, D, E, F
2: F, A, E, B, D, C
3: C, F, D, A, B, E
4: E, C, B, F, A, D
5: D, E, A, C, F, B
6: B, D, F, E, C, A
7: AB, CD, EF

“Don’t think before you write this one. Instead of getting intimidated by the structure, just pick your six end words and have fun seeing what develops.”

I’ve never written a sestina before, so I’ll experiment with a few here now. Here goes.

My six words are book, map, light, glass, truck, watch.

Book, map, light, glass, truck, watch
Watch, book, truck, map, glass, light
Light, watch, glass, book, map, truck
Truck, light, map, watch, book, glass
Glass, truck, book, light, truck, map
Map, glass, watch, truck, light, book
Bookmap, Lightglass, truckwatch

OK, I’m on the tail end of this thing now, and I have to admit that my first attempt looks somewhat weird. However, I suspect with a little more thought, I could make better word choices, instead of just picking six random words out of the air.

In the end, I wonder if any of you have ever tried to write a sestina before. Have you ever heard of these types of poems before? Let us know in the comments section below, and if you’re really adventurous, write your own sestina and post them for the rest of us to read.