A note about sestinas, and my professional development

Sestinas really reward revision. Why? Well, they're long, for one thing: very few of my published poems go over one page, but the thirty-nine line sestina always does. A longer poem has more room for improvement.

With any repetition-based form, the trick is to not say the same thing over and over. I find that my sestina drafts often include some lines, using the same end word, that really do say pretty much the same thing. One of the tasks of revision is to identify those lines, and swap one or both out with a line that uses the right end word but says something definitely different.

The COVID sestina has less of a narrative through-line than a lot of my sestinas. Instead, it's strong on language. Anaphora and paralellism, to mention a couple of rhetorical devices: these are not new tricks for me, but I've definitely learned to use them more consciously.

Here are some of the resources that I've been developing:
The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics, edited by Diane Lockward
This book is the foundation of my ongoing writing retreat. The craft tips are not all that engaging for me, but the prompts are terrific.

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase, by Mark Forsyth
Not specifically about poetry: examines the techniques of classical rhetoric. Many of these techniques are still in use in poetry - perhaps more so than in prose.

Structure and Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns, edited by Michael Theune
Recommended by my buddy Armin Tolentino. As the title suggests, this book looks at various kinds of turns that a poem can take, illustrated by "master" poems. It's not a writing primer, but should stimulate you to try to write a poem using a kind of turn you've never, or not often, used.

A reader alert to poetic techniques will notice that all of the above titles alliterate...

Books Available
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside