Introduction

Yesterday evening I took a class on the sestina, that poetic form originally introduced by French troubadours at the very start of the 13th century.  For those of you unfamiliar with this form, check out its Wikipedia entry.

The class was at the Brooklyn Brainery, and was taught by poet Regan Good.

I'd explored this form decades ago, in high school, and had always admired the way the discipline of its structure forced creativity.

After a brief review of the sestina's history, and exploration of some contemporary sestinas, including Elizabeth Bishop's A Miracle for Breakfast and John Ashbery's Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape, we got down to a warm-up exercise, in the form of a tritina, using only three crossing end words.

Everyone had the same three words to start, which were ocean, building, and river. They were to be used in an ABC, CAB, BCA pattern over three stanzas, followed by a closing line to contain all three words in ABC order.

Here's what I came up with:

Tritina

We are sailing on the ocean,

But I know you'd prefer a building

Shining by the river.

I know your heart is a river

Flowing into a vast ocean

While mine is a tidy building.

Can you feel the current building

As we float down the river

That sweeps us to the ocean?

And as we reach the ocean a building comes to dam the river.

OK, we got through that, but a new challenge awaited.  Regan had very thoughtfully e-mailed each of us prior to the class to ask about our favorite poets and writing experiences, etc., and based on our responses had prepared a set of six words for each of us (as well as some wine to aid in the "derangement of all the senses" - merci, Rimbaud and Regan!).

Here were my words:
sundial
evening
hallway
church
grove
violet

Gulp! What was I supposed to do with that? Hallway? Seriously?

Regan had also provided a template of the end word switches from Rena Mosteirin's Sestina End Word Generator so we wouldn't get too caught up in the mechanics of the operation, and away we went!