As a writing exercise in my MFA coursework, I wrote a sestina. Sestinas, like sonnets, haiku, limericks, for example, have a prescribed structure that dictates how the poem must be written.

The sestina, in my opinion, is the most restrictive of these forms of poetry, requiring the poet to use six words repeatedly as the ends of every line in a specific pattern through six stanzas of six lines each with a triplet at the end using all six words, again in a specific pattern.

If you are interested, I encourage you to read about the form on the Poetry Foundation’s website. You can also find examples of these poems there.

My own effort is my poem, “Showing Photos to my Grandson” which is presented here on poetprojects.com. I will not offer false humility here–it’s a very good poem. If I’m being critical, it is a bit sentimental. On the other hand, I rather like sentiment. Also, I technically didn’t follow the pattern, when in the last line of the poem I ended with the word “blood” instead of “but”. 

Poetic license.

I learned a lot in the process of writing this sestina. First, it was an exercise in the way that running or biking is an exercise when training for a race. Being forced into strict requirements works out the poetry muscle, if you will, pulling and tugging on the neurons and brain matter that poets utilize as they write.

Second, the process was immersive, the way that studying a language in a classroom where you can only speak the language is. I locked myself in a room and came out two hours or so later, though it could have been longer or shorter. This is not, in general, anywhere near the process I use to write poetry. 

Much as going to the gym and only doing the same thing over and over again with the same weights is not terribly helpful to your overall fitness, always writing free verse and occasionally using end-rhyme doesn’t increase the poet’s skill level, save the way that walking a lot helps you walk a lot. 

I am presenting here on poetprojects.com a series of exercises designed to push and pull your poetry muscle the way that a great coach will ask you to push yourself in practice so that you can perform better in the game. 

I am testing each exercise myself and will post those poems here on the site. I encourage you to try them yourself and post your own poem in the comments for each exercise where others can see your work.

I am hoping to build a course using these exercises that will help others develop the skill needed to write poetry. Now that I am a retired teacher, I find myself thinking often about how I would teach such and such a lesson.