Vision in Verse: Cherry Blossom Sestina

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Vision in Verse: Cherry Blossom Sestina

One fine poetic afternoon, in the lush green lawns of the Weymouth Center for Arts and Humanities in Pinehurst, North Carolina, I attended a workshop on sestinas. A sestina, a form of formal poetry, was first spoken by traveling troubadours of the 12th century in Pompei. A poem of thirty-nine lines, it is bejeweled by end words repeating themselves in a pattern. I was intrigued by how a simple combination of six end words can make a basketful in…