I was going through some of my old work from a creative writing class I took in college. I thought I would share a poem I wrote in that class here. One of our assignments was to write a sestina poem. I found a definition for a sestina poem on www.poetryfoundation.org.

"A complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order as end words in each of the subsequent five stanzas; the closing envoy contains all six words, two per line, placed in the middle and at the end of the three lines."

As of now the poem is untitled. Feel free to title it for yourself as you see fit.

In sporadic circles the dog

Ran faster amongst the performers knockings heads with the fire extinguisher

pitter-pattering about, almost stepped upon by a single foot

following the scent of wine made from a sentimental grape

nearby stood the elegant frame of an elephant

before being corralled by the master magician.

Steam erupted from his face as the master magician

placed his grip upon the neck of the dog

underneath the presence of the elephant

nearing the need of the fire extinguisher

praying for help by a solidary grape

as it all came down upon the fault of the limb called a foot

If it weren’t for her foot

maybe it would have been ended by the magician

under the influence of a spoiled grape

that had been regurgitated by the dog

before the flames arose and everyone ran for the fire extinguisher

stuck underneath the rear end of the rock sometimes referred to as an elephant

Try as they might to move the mass of the elephant

there were too many multiple of the foot

burying the flames before anyone could find another fire extinguisher

all eyes turned towards the terrified expression of the usually solemn magician

who was still holding the neck of the shameful dog

still vomiting up, one by one a spoiled grape

The squishy mess of the grape

rolled out of the opening between the teeth and underneath that elephant

whose sole purpose was to save the dog

from the multitude of soft, soft foot

under the spell of such a fantastic magician

who could prevent all from finding the fire extinguisher

Would they? Could they find the fire extinguisher?

if a spoiled grape

could be found in the midst surely the magician

would conjure up a spell to move the elephant

and everyone would find a better spot to place each foot

around the sweet, smirk of the dog

When the calm settled around the mass of the elephant

behind the multitude of each foot

all that remained was the loyalty of that one applicable Dog.

~Chelsey Maus

#Poetry #SestinaPoem #CreativeWriting #Writing