New York Times Poetry, Sex-not-poetry, and the Sestina

I’ve started exploring the New York Times poetry and poets section.
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/poetry_and_poets/index.html
Some good, up-to-date stuff. There’s also an article on how to celebrate poetry month
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/11-ways-to-celebrate-national-poetry-month-with-the-new-york-times/, and Craigslist as poetry. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/nyregion/28poetry.html

Yeah, Craigslist. You read that right.

There’s book reviews, poet obits, and all that. Fun stuff.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xad1qa_wrong-steve-sex-not-poetry_shortfilms

Wrong Steve - Sex Not Poetry!
Uploaded by BadDateTV. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Sucks to be this guy.

Okay, form. Today’s form is the rather typical sestina. It’s French in origin, a 39-line poem with specific end-line words, six of them, that recombine to form a pattern. All lines should be similar in length.

So the schematic looks like this:
123456
615243
364125
532614
451362
246531

A picture, or in this case the picture of a poem, is worth a thousand words.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20167

Six Words

by Lloyd Schwartz

yes

no

maybe

sometimes

always

never

Never?

Yes.

Always?

No.

Sometimes?

Maybe—

maybe

never

sometimes.

Yes—

no

always:

always

maybe.

No—

never

yes.

Sometimes,

sometimes

(always)

yes.

Maybe

never . . .

No,

no—

sometimes.

Never.

Always?

Maybe.

Yes—

yes no

maybe sometimes

always never.

And for fun, here is a sestina generator. http://dilute.net/sestinas/