AUTHOR’S GAB, READER TALK.
A LETTER TO YOU, THE READER, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M THINKING.
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THIS MONTH: Stewing Up a Sestina
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“The sestina, like a song, helps us say what we want to say without really saying it; because it’s almost impossible to tell a story in a sestina, we tell our deep impressions and emotions instead. These emotions build and build through the repetitions of the end words, and we’re left holding something that feels like it might not be words at all, but perhaps just the whispering wind or a double rainbow.”
-L.L. Barkat, poet and blogger (“tweetspeak”)
Dear Reader,
I recently had this thought, which went something like, “I want to write my own sestina.”
It was a very good thought and one I planned on doing anyway at some point in my life, so I set about the usual steps I take when starting a poem, generating an appropriate topic, thinking about content and brainstorming ideas for what my sestina would look like.
But, the more I dug into the form, the more I realized how much this thought was like my, “I want to write a villanelle,” thought. I started researching and writing my villanelle, only to, mid-poem, have the sudden desire to shoot myself (not literally) over the heavy rhyme scheme villanelles require. Kudos to whoever finds themselves talented at churning those things out on a regular basis, because, while I finished mine successfully, it was quite a headache. Hilariously, I even forgot what a headache that poem was and recently had a second thought: “I want to write another villanelle.” Ah yes, the mad mind of a dedicated poet. 😛
Working on my first sestina isn’t much different. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to apply my research and write a poignant Ad Lib about sestinas themselves. Maybe, it can help you understand the form as I try to grasp it myself.~
First things first, sestinas are word-cesspools, a huge, delicious, crazy stew of stanzas. The first sestina I ever read was “I Dreamed I Wrote This Sestina In My Maidenform Bra” by Denise Duhamel, and the thing was a wonderful, beautiful mess. Rhyme scheme? Ha! Syllables? Forget it! All that mattered was making sense out of the stew, executing to perfection her six, pesky end-words and her three-line resolution. It made me realize how this form was meant to be eye-candy but still drive home a punchline.
Sincerely, Your Writer,
Jessica A. McLean
The Rose 