Kaleidoscope Dreams

A Poem by Christi Moon

Sestina (double)

unwind the evening shades of sapphire moon

behind cool painted shadows morning kissed

imprinted rhapsody of phthalo tune

as haunting themes take shape here out of mist

for all along this way Light’s image stream

to lead reflections home held in a dream

agape wanderlust of midnight’s dream

bare reverie beneath love’s fetching moon

swift flowing in a wanton hurried stream

like whispering to waving shorelines kissed

to spray the air with salty azure mist

as crashing waves bring mother nature’s tune

lift universal tongues to sing in tune

endeavor to unite seraphic dream

soon color blind to racial biased mist

legato stillness of the nimbus moon

embracing all the prisms heaven kissed

aware our conscious ripples in the stream

behold our youth is scattered in this stream

a legacy of music out of tune

content to dance in wicked rhythm, kissed

consumed by greed our sacred selfish dream

dark ebb and flow soon beckoned by the moon

becoming just guerrillas in the mist

as stolen forests fall in twilight mist

endangered life goes floating down the stream

a cove runs red by dolphin’s bloody moon

man silenced innate wisdom’s sweetest tune

now captive in a nightmare’s shallow dream

in agony for freedom deeply kissed

to taste the purest lips I’ve ever kissed

enraptured in a blissful teary mist

entwined in silken colors of this dream

as earthly wonders fade our stellar stream

undying song’s eternal perfect tune

awash impassioned shadows of the moon

for weary souls that pray by holy moon

left counting Mary wooden beads are kissed

while piping organs play oppression's tune

the Kool-Aid's passed around in faithful mist

salvation's baptized in a steady stream

dark justifying means through promised dream

on farms they're raised green grass their simple dream

to graze in fields beneath earth's peaceful moon

appease their offspring near a babbling stream

aware the simple pleasures sunlight kissed

life ripped away in bovine slaughtered mist

for hungry carnivores atrocious tune

as double-bells kept time for tribal tune

and bare hands gathered in a djembe dream

their flesh was sold beholding savage mist

enslaved in vessels guided by the moon

bereaving homeland iron-clad they kissed

as slave ships swept across the ocean's stream

the left and right debate in bright main-stream

behind the ramparts of star-spangled tune

their cunning speeches sold and babies kissed

majestic mountain's brazen purple dream

the world to gaze upon our western moon

as blood dries in the dawn's light early mist

in wheat fields covered with a cypress mist

asylum's magnus opus vivid stream

for beauty found in Van Gogh’s Starry moon

his orchestra of colours richest tune

museum walls to hold the artist’s dream

each masterpiece his sable brushes kissed

invented by a poet pages kissed

Sestina’s crossing end-words retro mist

a system to switch rhyme scheme but a dream

as double vision structured stanzas stream

iambic meter verses ring in tune

themes illustrating letters to the moon

in vivid dreams subconscious spirits kissed

awakened in the moon’s transcending mist

amid nirvana’s stream our stellar tune

Author's Note

The sestina is a strict ordered form of poetry, dating back to twelfth century French troubadours. It consists of six six-line (sestets) stanzas followed by a three-line envoy. Rather than use a rhyme scheme, the six ending words of the first stanza are repeated as the ending words of the other five stanzas in a set pattern. The envoy uses two of the ending words per line, again in a set pattern.

First stanza, ..1 ..2 ..3 ..4 ..5 ..6

Second stanza, ..6 ..1 ..5 .. 2 ..4 ..3

Third stanza, ..3 ..6 ..4 ..1 ..2 ..5

Fourth stanza, ..5 ..3 ..2 ..6 ..1 ..4

Fifth stanza, ..4 ..5 ..1 ..3 ..6 ..2

Sixth stanza, ..2 ..4 ..6 ..5 ..3 ..1

Concluding tercet:

middle of first line ..6, end of first line ..2

middle of second line ..1, end of second line..4

middle if third line ..5, end of third line ..3

The oldest British example of the form is a pair of sestinas (frequently referred to as a double sestina), "Ye Goat-Herd Gods", written by Sir Philip Sidney in 1590

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I have written a double sestina in rhymed iambic pentameter.