{"id":3407,"date":"2018-02-15T13:35:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T17:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/?p=3407"},"modified":"2018-02-15T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:31:49","slug":"february-sestina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/?p=3407","title":{"rendered":"February Sestina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s my last effort from the poetry workshop<\/a>.\u00a0 It is a poetic form from the early-Renaissance<\/em> troubadour days known as the sestina<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Basically, you pick six (6) words that mean something to you and use them at the end of the first six line stanza.\u00a0The next five stanzas use the same words as ending words but jumble around the order. For instance, my first stanza ended with: yummy (1), Vermont (2), cats (3), mountains (4), vacation (5), and fun (6). The next stanza ends with: fun (6), yummy (1), vacation (5),\u00a0Vermont (2), mountains (4),\u00a0cats (3). The order jumbles for another four stanzas. The final stanza, the envoi<\/em>, is three lines 5-3-1 that must include the other words 2-4-6. Or something like that.<\/p>\n

What I learned is early-\u00a0Renaissance poets took better care picking the six words than I did!<\/p>\n

Maple sugar pancakes yummy<\/em>
\n up away from town in Vermont<\/em>
\n in the company of my trusty cats<\/em>
\n away from the bustle high in the mountains<\/em>
\n enjoying time like it’s a vacation<\/em>
\n having fun<\/em><\/p>\n

I like to have fun<\/em>
\n eating treats so yummy<\/em>
\n it’s like I’m on a flavor vacation<\/em>
\n in maple sugary Vermont<\/em>
\n cookies piled high like mountains<\/em>
\n ravenously eyed by my hungry cats<\/em><\/p>\n

Really, where would I be without my trusty cats?<\/em>
\n Few friends of mine have been so dependable and fun<\/em>
\n They live with me now near the sea but came from the mountains<\/em>
\n they will gladly do tricks for something yummy<\/em>
\n like they did in Vermont<\/em>
\n when we were on vacation<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m always ready for vacation<\/em>
\n and ready to pack up my cats<\/em>
\n traveling up to their homeland Vermont<\/em>
\n to stay in the old farmhouse for fun<\/em>
\n enjoying treats yummy<\/em>
\n in a valley in the mountains<\/em><\/p>\n

I love summer in the mountains<\/em>
\n away from the city on vacation<\/em>
\ngrilling and cookies yummy<\/em>
\n with Felix and Quiet Rustle the cats<\/em>
\n Having nothing but fun<\/em>
\n up in Vermont<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not a long drive to Vermont<\/em>
\n away from the flat-landers in the mountains<\/em>
\n Having fun<\/em>
\n on vacation<\/em>
\n with my cats<\/em>
\n who like their treats yummy<\/em><\/p>\n

Vermont on vacation<\/em>
\n my pair of mountain cats<\/em>
\n Having fun and treats yummy<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright 2018 Christopher Donahue<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s my last effort from the poetry workshop.\u00a0 It is a poetic form from the early-Renaissance troubadour days known as the sestina.\u00a0 Basically, you pick six (6) words that mean something to you and use them at the end of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3407"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3437,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions\/3437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christopherdonahue.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}