Darn you, Sestina!  June 2, 2007 - June 16, 2007

The rules are quite simple--write a sestina. The poetic form, however, is not. To refresh, a sestina is a poetic form where the same ending words are used in six paragraphs (and the closing three lines) in a 6-1-5-2-4-3 pattern. To demonstrate, here's a shabby little sestina I wrote about a year and a half ago.

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Wicked Fantasy

Ago, eternal light was shining through yon starry boughs,
So warm and bright in thought but meant to drive all hope away.
It was a quickly fading dream, though poison rots the world�
I begged you not to chance your hopes, your thoughts, your dreams�on this.
For do you miss the taste of luscious kisses on your lips?
Or falling fast to sleep�no more you dream when days are dreams.

I fear that you shall disappear forever from my dreams.
I�ve passed from yours too long to find you �mongst your starry boughs.
And yet your name still lingers�still�upon my broken lips,
Unspoken and unwanted there�I push the sin away,
Console my lonely thoughts with lies�you never wanted this
When, on a whim, you left me in your exile from this world.

Your choice remains, and such it is, but still I search the world
For something I can only find in rare and fleeting dreams.
My sole regret is that I never thought it�d come to this.
I laugh at my delusions�am I more than star-struck boughs?
Oh, all along the thought of dreams had pulled you far away,
Until you run your fingers over soft, forgotten lips,

And years have past, and you are but a word upon my lips.
�Tis far too late to wish your soul were back upon this world
And past the time to hug me close�forever, I�m away.
I fear that I may one day chance to step into your dreams,
And you may feel the ache I feel when touched by starry boughs,
The notion that a piece of me was torn away by this.

So ache I will, and smile I might�I live to bear all this,
Would that the thought of me had drift unspoke upon your lips.
I scream to you�if you could hear�we kissed beneath these boughs!
A million years ago�remember!�on the sands of another world�
Before you dared confine yourself to my lonely, bitter dreams
And push with your own hand your mind and slowly drift away.

I never want for you to feel the sorrow I�d away
Or twinge with guilt to think that you had brought upon us this.
It�s why I pleaded long and hard with you to stray from dreams.
But you�so stubborn�drew a line where once there were two lips.
And scattered all the parts of you to the corners of this world.
Yet�what becomes your dreams, your fantasy among the boughs?

Don�t whisper �way all thoughts of me with your forgotten lips
For feel I all your sorrow mine upon this dreary world.
A pity I don�t dream your dreams among your starry boughs!

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It's preferable if you write in iambic pentameter, but it's not required. For more information on sestinas, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina.

Jake Svercek

United Kingdom

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Created Jun 2, 2007