Thursday, February 4, 2010

Ways to Love (Or not)

So I have finally decided to embrace my inner writer and I am taking a creative writing class :) One of our first assignments was to write a sestina. I know, its a funny word.
"The sestina is a challenging form in which, rather than simply rhyming, the actual line-ending words are repeated in successive stanzas in a designated rotating order. A sestina consists of six 6-line stanzas, concluding with a 3-line “envoi” which incorporates all the line-ending words, some hidden inside the lines. The prescribed pattern for using the 6 line-ending words is:"
1st stanza 1 2 3 4 5 6
2nd stanza 6 1 5 2 4 3
3rd stanza 3 6 4 1 2 5
4th stanza 5 3 2 6 1 4
5th stanza 4 5 1 3 6 2
6th stanza 2 4 6 5 3 1
envoi 2--5 4--3 6--1
 ..... Yeah. So. Without further ado. My first attempt at the art that is Sestina.

Ways to Love (Or not)
By Diana Weber

I cannot love you always.
I cannot love you. Never.
I cannot love you just once
I cannot love you again
I cannot love you now
I cannot love you, then

I loved you then
I loved you always
I loved you now
I loved you never
I loved you again
I loved you once

I will love you once...
I will love you then
I will love you again
I will love you always
I will love you never
I will love you now

I will never love you now
I will never  love you once…
I will never love you. Never...
I will never love you, then.
I will never love you always
I will never  love you again

I have loved you once again
I have loved you until now
I have loved you always
I have loved you, once
I have loved you since then
I have loved you never

I love you never
I love you again
I love you until then
I love you now
I love you for once
I love you always

...never...now
...then...again
...once...always

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