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A lousy christmas sestina without ghostly visitants or redemption Discarding the creche was easier than switching to silver and blue. A fake, white tree is just as amenable to silver and blue as it is to green and red, or, for that matter, as it is to purple and gold. He sits at his desk with his gold coins: the yearly Mint sets are easier to collect, as there is less matter to read and study – a strain on his blue and aging eyes. Life is what it is. No tree will make it more amenable. The silence, though, is amenable, so too the leather folio of gold coins, embossed with the year that is 2016. This makes it easier to file with the others, while the blue lights blink, thinking that they matter. Far more than the lights is the matter of his life: a more than amenable permanent vacation in the blue eyed, blond haired, futures market in gold contracts trading class where it's easier to dream what isn't than ignore what is. Our deskbound numismatist shuns what IS: hunger, thirst, exposure, sickness. What matter are they to him when it is much easier to ignore them and be amenable to those who make the law, who own the gold? His hair will still be blond, his eyes still blue. Yes, switching to the silver and blue with a fake, white tree certainly is a gift worthy of the Infant! Not! Gold, frankincense, and myrrh: such solid matter was not asked for by the amenable Babe; just that Love be made easier. No easier, more amenable matter than Love: shunned by blue eyes whose God is gold.

The Embassy here in Washington just told me they put it on their Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/estemb.washington Tallinn sestina - an emigration of the heart O, how I wish that She was my city! For seven hundred years another name Graced the maps of earth, but there's no pity Should be felt: for within the graceful frame Of sea and of snow, my Tallinn, my own, Did stand and shine, majestic yet alone. But how can I claim that She is alone? I have never travelled to the city That I, one day, would like to call my own. What right do I have to pronounce Her name Of Kalevan or Reval? In what frame Do I deserve to be shown Her pity? For it is not love I seek but pity; Yes, the kahju that my Tallinn alone Can bestow upon my alien frame! For some five thousand years has my city Been both free and not free in Her great name: She will bless those She knows to be Her own! Denmark, Sweden, and Russia would not own Her forever! The Heavens did pity Her children, and did declare that Her name Would defeat tyranny and war! Alone In my heart and mind, Saint Victor's city, Protect and keep us in Your holy frame! I know She rises from a Baltic frame Among states that were also not their own -- Dark days of atomic threat! No city Other than Tallinn will I beg, "Pity! For this one who is both lone and alone Seeks shelter in Your History and Name." Livonia, Hansa: whatever name Of the larger land can only but frame She who is in my heart and mind alone; Like a poet who knows he does not own What he creates, may this Tallinn pity This stirring of words to Her, my city. Let me live in Her name, Her very own! Let Old Thomas frame Her sense of pity! I'll come alone: embrace me, O, city!

The first link is to existing works of the 12th century troubador who is believed to have invented the sestina form. The works are in the original Occitan language AND English. http://www.trobar.or.../arnaut_daniel/ Here is the Wikipedia page about him: http://en.wikipedia....i/Arnaut_Daniel Here is a web form that aids the poet in constructing a sestina: http://dilute.net/sestinas/ And here is a youtube post on one of the existing songs/poems from the first site listed above:

The poem that I posted to the group here, on our site: http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=3424 Was posted by the Estonian Embassy here in DC on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/estemb.washington/posts/10151606160282959 I don't know how long it will be on their main page. I myself do not Facebook, so I have no idea how new articles "push down" old ones, or if older ones are even archived somewhere. Right now, April 2 2013, the poem is on the exact URL above. Go, poetry!

Bajafalta: a pacifist refutation of ezra pound's "altaforte" from a gay, socialist deacon The end words in my sestina are the same as his. His angry, war mongering Altaforte can be read here: http://www.poets.org...hp/prmMID/15423 There is nothing greater than wanting peace, Except working for it. Maybe music And poetry, along with love, could clash Into silence those that are opposing The Cross and Sickle. When no more crimson Blood is shed God's world will be rejoicing! And everyone will join in rejoicing! There will be nothing stronger than the peace Of all the prophets of God: no crimson Stains to mar the poetry and music And love. Who will dare to start opposing Utopia by dark and brutish clash? The Jains will have to teach us not to clash; Neo-pagans will give us rejoicing, Old school style, with Pesedjet opposing The Anunnaki in Baccarat peace Tournaments, with Vegas-style lounge music, Where only Cosmotinis are crimson. OK, an Angel cocktail is crimson, Too. Hopefully the bar napkins won't clash With the white flag swizzle sticks. Praise music, Louder than the norm, might give rejoicing Video poker jockies a new peace With the RNG that they're opposing. Christians and Muslims won't be opposing Each other, or the Jew: all have crimson Blood from Abe's line. Oh, yes, there will be peace In the valley for you and me: no clash Of civilizations, just rejoicing To funky Shinto or Hindoo music. And we will all listen to the music! And we will all learn to start opposing Enemies of God's Peace - by rejoicing Together! And we will not let crimson Run in fields nor streets. Besides, that would clash With God's new color scheme of Green (for) Peace. Let us hear music and not see crimson! Stop opposing love and supporting clash! Begin rejoicing to usher in peace! February 2013 *RNG = random number generator. Software code that randomly selects the next card dealt in a video poker machine.

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry French Verse The Sestina, Sestine or Sesta Rima (a song of sixes), is an intricate verse that includes repeating end-words (teleutons) in a strict pattern throughout the poem. The repetition allows the poet to shift from past to present or to create layers of meaning. Words that can have multiple uses either by way of being of different parts of speech or have different meanings can give the ensuing stanzas a different perspective. In the Sestina at its best, the end-words should relate to each other as an expressed whole. The Sestina is generally attributed to Anault Daniel, ( - 1210) a French mathematician and poet. The troubadours of the 13th century adopted the form and it eventually became popular with the Italian poets, particularly Petrarch and Dante. This popular and well known verse form should not to be confused with the Spanish Sextilla which when written with a specific rhyme scheme is sometimes referred to as a "sestina". The elements of the Sestina are: suited to a narrative because of its length and lack of rhyme. It gives the poet room to tell a story. in English most often iambic pentameter but sometimes iambic tetrameter. In French and Italian the Sestina is composed as syllabic verse. (whatever meter employed, the lines should be of equal length). contained in 39 lines, grouped into 6, sexains or sixains (6 line stanzas) followed by a 3 line unrhymed envoi or tornada (a salutation or sending forth) The last 3 lines gather up and deploy all 6 end-words. composed with 6 unrhymed end-words which must occur in every stanza but in a changing order that follow a set pattern. (this is known as lexical repetition) The order seems to turn the poem inside out, the first end-word eventually becomes the last. The pattern of end-words shift from stanza to stanza is a mathematical equation from which, if one were to write a 7th stanza, the pattern of the 1st stanza would be repeated in the 7th. (I read that, don't ask me to prove it.) The set pattern of shifting end-words from stanza to stanza is: 1st stanza 1 2 3 4 5 6 2nd stanza 6 1 5 2 4 3 3rd stanza 3 6 4 1 2 5 4th stanza 5 3 2 6 1 4 5th stanza 4 5 1 3 6 2 6th stanza 2 4 6 5 3 1 L1 envoi 2-5 (even numbered end words incorporated internally into the line.) L2 envoi 4-3 L3 envoi 6-1 Tallinn sestina - an emigration of the heart by DC Martinson Where's Leigh? by Judi Van Gorder With sugar cookie tucked neatly inside the pocket of his blue plaid shirt, today is like all others now. He drives to the home where some of the ladies coyly watch for him while she sits staring mutely at her lap, mind grasping for an unremembered past. With eyes lowered he modestly walks past the ladies, pupils alter to the light inside, she sits where she always sits, hands on lap. There's a soft sun and a warm breeze today, he gruffly takes her into the garden with him, away from the ladies and the smell of the home. He fights the urge to take her back, back home, to whisper, yell and laugh as in the past. Her strange responses make no sense to him, he wants his bride, who has been locked inside the tiny aging body, to emerge today, to tease and play and snuggle in his lap. He used to juggle children on his lap, 'was often noisy at their country home. Some sixty years, he still lives there today, the house is hushed in conflict with the past. At times too lonely to stay closed up inside he walks to town with cap pulled down, just him. A simple working man, most respect him, she was fun, the social one, the one who'd lap up the attention from others, yet inside their private world he was the hub at home, he led their children, then grandchildren past the snares of youth, to become his pride today. Too fast the years flowed to bring them to today. Though memory is gone, she calls for him, he hears his name from her lips and the past is now. He reaches for a hand in her lap, puts the cookie in her palm, her smile is his home. He checks his watch, too soon they'll call her inside. She won't recall today, she'll sit hands on lap, she asks for him, "where's Leigh?" "it's time for home" He steps past the ladies, tucking tears inside. Sestina Sonnet is an invented sonnet frame found at Poet's Collective that uses the English Sonnet frame but uses lexical repetition of the end words of the first quatrain in subsequent stanzas. The elements of the Sestina Sonnet are: a lyrical meditation. a quatorzain made up of 3 quatrains followed by a couplet. metric, iambic pentameter. pivot at discretion of poet. rhymed abab baba abab (a)b(a)b. (a) internal in final couplet end words repeated in different order, in the couplet W1 and W3 are internal. stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 stanza 2: 4 1 2 3 stanza 3: 3 4 1 2 Stanza 4 (3)4 (1)2 A Double Sestina can be composed in one of two ways. Sidney's Double Sestina, named for English poet, Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), simply doubles the frame of the Sestina, creating 12 sixains, followed by an envoy tercet. After the Sestina repetitive pattern of the 6 keywords has been completed in the first 6 stanzas, the same pattern and keywords are repeated in the next 6 stanzas. The envoy appears at the end of the poem not at the end of the first 6 stanzas. stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 stanza 2: 6 1 5 2 4 3 stanza 3: 3 6 4 1 2 5 stanza 4: 5 3 2 6 1 4 stanza 5: 4 5 1 3 6 2 stanza 6: 2 4 6 5 3 1 stanza 7: 1 2 3 4 5 6 stanza 8: 6 1 5 2 4 3 stanza 9: 3 6 4 1 2 5 stanza 10: 5 3 2 6 1 4 stanza 11: 4 5 1 3 6 2 stanza 12: 2 4 6 5 3 1 envoi: 5/2 3/4 1/6 Ye Goatheard Gods by Sir Philip Sidney or Swinburne's Double Sestina attributed to Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909) writing 12 12-line stanzas with a 6 line envoi in the following pattern of end words. stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 stanza 2: 12 1 9 11 4 7 2 8 3 10 6 5 stanza 3: 5 12 6 4 7 1 2 3 10 9 11 8 stanza 4: 8 5 7 6 4 12 10 2 3 11 1 9 stanza 5: 9 8 6 10 1 2 7 4 3 12 5 11 stanza 6: 11 9 6 10 4 2 7 1 12 8 5 3 stanza 7: 3 11 7 8 12 1 2 10 5 6 9 4 stanza 8: 4 3 9 6 5 10 1 7 12 11 8 2 stanza 9: 2 4 5 1 3 8 7 10 9 11 12 6 stanza 10: 6 2 9 3 8 1 7 5 10 4 11 12 stanza 11: 12 6 8 4 3 5 9 10 2 1 11 7 stanza 12: 7 12 6 3 9 11 5 8 4 2 10 1 envoi: 10/8 9/7 4/3 6/2 1/11 5/12 French Rhymed Sestina is a Sestina with rhyme in the 1st stanza, rhyme scheme abcbca. The rhyme scheme will change as the end words change position from stanza to stanza but they will always remain some combination of the rhyme of the 1st stanza. Newman Sestina is an invented form of the Sestina introduced by Bob Newman at Vol Central. It is written as any standard Sestina would be written but the key or end words are anagrams, eg form/from ant/tan scared/sacred etc. Well there really isn't an Ocarina but as suggested by Bob Newman at Vol Central, if a sestina was written with a combination of 8 key or end words, it would probably be named the Ocarina. The thought of tracking the sequential changes with the added 2 lines boggles my mind, but I am pretty sure it can be done. Rhymed Double Sestina is attributed to Algernon Swinburne and follows the end word pattern of the Swinburne's Double Sestina and is rhymed. Stanza 1 is abcabcdefdef all other stanzas follow the end word pattern as designed unfolding a different rhyme scheme using the same 6 rhymes for each. Rhyme stanza 1: a b c a b c d e f d e f stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 stanza 2: 12 1 9 11 4 7 2 8 3 10 6 5 stanza 3: 5 12 6 4 7 1 2 3 10 9 11 8 stanza 4: 8 5 7 6 4 12 10 2 3 11 1 9 stanza 5: 9 8 6 10 1 2 7 4 3 12 5 11 stanza 6: 11 9 6 10 4 2 7 1 12 8 5 3 stanza 7: 3 11 7 8 12 1 2 10 5 6 9 4 stanza 8: 4 3 9 6 5 10 1 7 12 11 8 2 stanza 9: 2 4 5 1 3 8 7 10 9 11 12 6 stanza 10: 6 2 9 3 8 1 7 5 10 4 11 12 stanza 11: 12 6 8 4 3 5 9 10 2 1 11 7 stanza 12: 7 12 6 3 9 11 5 8 4 2 10 1 envoi: 10/8 9/7 4/3 6/2 1/11 5/12 The Complaint of Lisa by Algernon Swinburne Sonnetina is a sonnet-like form using repeating end words. It is also an invented 10 line form found on a separate page Sonnetina (10 line) here. The elements of this (14 line)Sonnetina are: quatorzain made up of 3 quatrains followed by a couplet. metered, preferably iambic pentameter. pivot at discretion of poet. unrhymed but employing repeating end words in the following pattern: stanza 1: 1234 stanza 2: 4123 stanza 3: 3412 envoi: 1/2 3/4 . . 1 and 3 internal / 2 and 4 endwords. Swinburne's Rhymed Sestina uses alternate rhyme and changes the end word patterns from the original Sestina pattern to maintain an alternate rhyme pattern. This is attributed to English poet Algernon Swinburne. Rhyme: a b a b a b End-word pattern: stanza 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 stanza 2: 6 1 4 3 2 5 stanza 3: 5 6 1 4 3 2 stanza 4: 2 5 6 1 4 3 stanza 5: 3 2 1 6 5 4 stanza 6: 4 3 2 5 6 1 envoi: 1/4 2/3 5/6 The Tritina is a very short form of the Sestina introduced by American poet Marie Ponsot. The elements of the Tritina are: stanzaic, written in 3 tercets followed by a single line envoy. metric, iambic pentameter. written with an enfolding end word pattern of stanza 1: 1 2 3 stanza 2: 3 1 2 stanza 3: 2 3 1 envoi: 1 2 3 Aleluja - 1 by DC Martinson I talk with my God through my missal. I'm not friendly enough for banter. I can't get from liturgy to love. When will my heart be open to love? When will my head not need the missal? When will my lips feel free to banter? I envy those who with God banter. I despise those whose souls have met love. I refute those not needing missal. Missal, bid me banter God through love!