TheBanyanTree: My Sestina

[dseaman77 at gmail.com]

How a sestina is structured.

There are six six-line stanzas and one three-line stanza.

Take the six words at the ends of the lines in the first stanza (labeled here ABCDEF) and repeat them at the ends of lines in the other six-line stanzas--in a different order each time.  Just to make it insanely hard, this is the order of the transformations:

1. ABCDEF
2. FAEBDC
3. CFDABE
4. ECBFAD
5. DEACFB
6. BDFECA
And then the lines of the last stanza (just three lines long) should end with ECA and have BDF within the lines.

There's no standard meter, and it doesn't have to rhyme.

So here is my assignment:
Moon Storm

the two eternities peak
alone in the pith moon-dust storm rider
raise your sail
catch the storm
grab the mast standing true
between sunrise and sunset proceed

at syzygy apex proceed
at the eternities take a peek
yet to your course stay true
moon-dust storm rider
surf the cosmic wave through the storm
the board and the mast were a burdensome sale

against the tempest raise sail
into the dust the sun proceeds
this morning is your storm
a hot wind that will flash peak
through the sunrise no rider
has ever voyaged so true

pole to pole the storm is true
the apex of dark and light is where to sail
grasp the mast lunar-dust storm rider
along the twilight proceed
where the knife edges peak
reflecting dawn’s storm

it’s a lunar storm
the tale is true
the sun makes it peak
dust catches in the sail
the board proceeds
that makes one a moon-dust storm rider

moon-dust storm riders
ride the wave of the storm
into the gale they will proceed
the mast flexing yet true
the sands hurl against the sail
muscles burn at their peak

lunar-dust storm rider to your course proceed true
this trip cannot be corrupted, it is not for sale
because at odds, the two eternities peak


Dave Seaman