I like to experiment periodically with forms.  Lately I’ve been attracted by the sestina.  The sestina has six, six-line stanzas followed by a three-line envoi.  Instead of a rhyme scheme it has an ending-word scheme. 

Stanza 1. ABCDEF
Stanza 2. FAEBDC
Stanza 3. CFDABE
Stanza 4. ECBFAD
Stanza 5. DEACFB
Stanza 6. BDFECA
Envoi.     ECA or ACE

One way to write a sestina is to choose the six ending words in advance, like this: 

A. emptiness

B. absence

C. love

D. image

E. beauty

F. peace  

 

I wrote the following sestina using these line-ending words: 

 

Emptiness

En-womb me in the warmth of emptiness  
Dancing joyfully in your absence
Lit by a tiny flame of love -
My own – I hold beside your image
Time-blurred, half remembered beauty  
I force you to bless me with a requiem of peace   

Vulnerable, I lie naked in peace
On a bed of emptiness
The sole admirer of my beauty
Passion made so much sweeter by its absence
Like remembered honey, an image
Of sweet, sticky love 

Singing a silent song of love
The music is peace
Sung in my own image
Resonating in a cave of emptiness
Echoing in your absence
A melody of meaningless beauty

In the silent orange dawn I see beauty
Spread across the sky in love
Ahead stretches the path of absence
A way that I must walk in peace
Paved with stones of emptiness
Carved in my image

When I close my eyes I see an image
A smile of beauty
On my face and yours, at emptiness
Our friend:  you empty of love 
And me empty of peace
Our kitchen full of absence

I will be joyful in your absence
Smile at your remembered image
Wait for never in peace
And see in nothing beauty
As the wind, chill and cold, like love
Hones sharp the edges of my emptiness

Feeding emptiness,
My love,
I, alone, see my beauty