Water flash floods, over desiccated earth,
Red clay, cracked, reaches to the sky, impervious
Lacking the permeability of loam
The blessing of rain is lost to barren
Lands their stunted trees, twisted by the wind, pock marked, and withered
Bounty must await more rain to salve the harrow
Fallow fields, great civilizations hunger, the harrow
A fragile balance, the broken ecology of Earth
Overrun, gassed, and withered
The masses reproducing, consuming, impervious
Traded the abundance for barren
Landscapes which never turned detritus to loam
Ameliorate my heart, enriching loam
Long years of drought and ceaseless harrow
Gasping, tilled with rust stained tools, barren
Churning immeasurable sorrows upon the earth
Song of my inner wilds long impervious
To the once pregnant myth that lies withered
The oak at the gateway to the immortal, withered
Crumbled towers of loam
The gate is barred, impervious
Transcendent vultures cannot harrow
Volcanic, desolate earth
Calling into existence days barren
Art looses its power, healing words are barren
Diaphanous choirs of angels, cherubim and seraphim, withered
Glory turned blind upon the Earth
I build a dwelling place with loam
To carve a niche, survive the circumscribing harrow
Hecate declares all crossroads closed, impervious
Turning to each other impervious
All connection severed, irrigated paths barren
Blackened by unforgiving, shared terror of the harrow
Knots connecting epiphytes to hosts now withered
Striving for heaven too high to ever reach the loam
Roots dangling above the earth
Impervious cries leave me withered
Barren effigies mock my search for the illusive loam
Harrow denies redivivus to a once vibrant Earth.
Chromapoetica 
oo this is good…ameliorate my heart…nice…sobering poem….
I admire your nerve and talent in tackling this form! I had to look it up to see how the lines were laid out! I don’t know that I could even keep it straight! Even more importantly, it is beautiful and touching. The imagery is astounding! I am in awe.
Thank you for the feedback. I had to leave the ABCDEF, or variation thereof, of the word structure as placemarkers on each line of each verse to keep it straight. It helped a lot when keeping track of the 39 lines.
poignant but well summed up !!
This is a very good piece 🙂
Very beautiful! I like how it has a very complicated and technical feel to it as well. You did good.
Water flash floods, over desiccated earth,
blam!
that is how it is done.
good work.
reflexology and deep, well composed.
keep it up.
Thank you all for visiting and leaving encouraging comments. I enjoy participating in the Jingle community.
Vivid poem! Great sestina and I learned a new word: redivivus. 🙂
Thank you for inspiring us at dVerse, I’ll have to try another now. I love learning new words :).
I like it, Anna. Sestina works really well for the sort of complex yet cyclical theme you’re visiting here, I think, and you’ve done a great job with some difficult keywords. The mood of the piece is taught, sorrowful, yet also positively combative, and comes through in the almost palpable dismay at the various images of withered things and lifeless, wasted earth. Your tornada is original and crisp and resolves the piece nicely. I smiled when I saw your remark about the letters for placemarkers–i have an entire form sheet for that or I could *never* write one of these properly. My special favorite is the third stanza–all of it, so I won’t quote it back at you. It’s fun seeing how we all handle these, each to his or her own madness. ;_)
Yes, I didn’t have the apt advice of Matt on keywords for my first attempt and will certainly find easier words for my next trip. I’m so glad you enjoyed the third stanza, with its song of the inner wilds, I can’t believe I didn’t know you when I wrote this! I too laugh seeing you approach the sestina with your form sheet, excellent idea. Thanks again for reading and all your helpful comments; it’s always wonderful to have you visit.
Very powerful message here, Anna. It feels very apocalyptic to me–desolate and “withered”. But as usual, you have managed this form beautifully. I had tried my hand at a sestina back in July as well–on which you have previously commented. I would like to try another–some time.
Thank you, I enjoyed reading your sestina again. Yes, I tend to see this bleakly as environmental ethics never seem to gain ground.
Hey Anna – this is a great form – you have worked with some great words and i like how you directed the piece. It is so chock full of luscious words and links of flow and dynamic interplay.
a poem to get lost in. great engineering for the mind rig – i doff my hard hat with torch alight signaling morse across the pond 😉
It isn’t until your comment that I actually reread the piece which I sent off into the world last month. It is part engineering (protective mechanism) and part SOS so I thank you for the morse code :).
Exquisite sestina… I’ve found it helpful to use multi-meaning words/ homophones as end words. That way you have more to work with. Cheers!
Yes, that was my thinking too, thank you for your encouragement I think I will try another sometime.
I think this is one of your most ”emotional’ poems that I have read to date. I kept having the image of the poem read aloud as we see a close up of woman farmer trying to work an arid plot and at the final verse we pan out to see the starved land and failed farms.
There are 10 generations of farmers on my father’s side so that probably came through here. My grandfather lived through the Dust Bowl/Great Depression Era and eventually gave up farming after my father was grown and went into construction. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Now that makes sense to me!
Your Sestina is very experimental and paganly touched! How long have you been doing this? co’z don’t believe it’s the first or second or even your third time… you’ve done it lusciously affecting i must say… it has this appeal to me of shivering when my toes first kissed the damp earth after the rain.. brilliant Sestina! I made mine quite weird mixing up in a semi-classical tone!(:
Good day!
~Kelvin
Kelvin, as you know, I tend to be experimental. I’m glad my first attempt at a Sestina didn’t look or feel that way. I’m especially glad to hear it was affecting, thank you for the compliment. I’ll come read yours soon.
Anna…I think you may have been born to write Sestinas! You have such a wonderful and masterful grasp on language, every word is its own adventure. I’ve learned so much since finding your work and am so very thankful to have discovered it. This one really took hold…thank you!
Thank you, that’s so very kind of you to say! There have been long periods when I haven’t written because I wasn’t encouraged so your generous support of all of us means a great deal to me. You are a uniquely beautiful person, you poet you.
I really like these lines: “To the once pregnant myth that lies withered,” “To carve a niche, survive the circumscribing harrow Hecate declares all crossroads closed, impervious,” and “Barren effigies mock my search for the illusive loam.”
Thank you, I’m looking forward to reading yours.
Sorry so late to visit, Anna. Having to balance a lot these days. This was beautiful, well done and daring considering your end words and yet you met the challenge and triumphed. The poem supersedes the poem here and to my ear makes music out of this trenchant commentary on a dried, desolate wasteland. Excellent.
Thank you Gay, I think the sestina is particularly prone to being form driven (from those I’d read before trying to write one) and so I really wanted to fight the form a bit and find where I could stretch it and where its rigidity would be an asset. I especially wanted to avoid having the reader fall asleep reading it (the iterations can lead to too much expectation on the reader’s part and take away the desire to read the next stanza). All this is my long-winded way of saying that you’ve made my day in saying the poem supersedes the form. Thank you so much for fitting me into your busy schedule and for all your work promoting poets and our education at dVerse! We are ever so fortunate to have you at dVerse.
Meant to say supersedes form…becoming addled I’m afraid.
I like the repetition of loam.and ur use of the form. Your just did not fill the squares to write one, you actually said something worthy. Great job, poet.
http://henryclemmons.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/poets-reach/#comments
Thanks Henry, it’s wonderful you found the theme worthwhile; I appreciate your encouragement.
Love your Sestina. excelllent word choices.
this line: Diaphanous choirs of angels, cherubim and seraphim, withered
wow!
Thank you Christi, I look forward to reading yours (I haven’t had a chance to get to the last 7 or 8 yet – I’m sure its marvelous).