DAWN COLOR

This is a sestina that I wrote last week. No, I didn’t know what a sestina was either, but it sounded really neat when I looked it up, so I tried my hand at one. A sestina has six stanzas, with six lines each. Each line ends with one of six key words. It does not have to rhyme, but it can, if you think you’re that talented. I have an occasional slant rhyme in mine, which is purely accidental, but is kind of nice. Because I was also trying to write a sestina with a certain color theme - red - the words I chose were dawn, fire, sun, desire, blood and color. In the first stanza, the words are arranged however you want - after that it gets more complicated. This is the tricky part. The first line of the second verse must be the last line of the first verse. The second line of the second verse must be the first line of the first verse. The third line must be the fifth line of the first verse, and so on. It took me awhile to get the hang of this, so I made a table that might be helpful in case you ever feel like writing one. (It really is fun once you get started. If you ever do, I would love to read it!)

First Verse Second Verse Third verse
First Line dawn color sun
Second Line fire dawn color
Third Line sun blood desire
Fourth Line desire fire dawn
Fifth Line blood desire fire
Sixth Line color sun blood

The fourth verse will begin with blood. See the pattern. And so on…

That’s not all. The six verses are followed by a closing verse of three lines. All six key words must be included in this envoy.

Here’s mine.

I walked the edge of the newborn dawn
That wakened the world with fire
And I stood on the brink of the setting sun
In front of the world’s desire
And I realized that this is a world of blood
Because red is the only color.

And I realized that red is the only Color
In torches of silence at Dawn
In cardinal sunsets and roses of Blood
And wine-kissed lips in the Fire
In the sacrifice and the one Desire
When the eyes of the dragon burn like the Sun.

The morning is washed with the bleeding Sun
Because red is the only Color
In the burning gold of death’s Desire
And the blazing passion of Dawn
And the crimson jewels of the frozen Fire
Drenched in a poppies’ Blood.


The streets that ran red with the lover’s Blood
The sacrifice of the Sun
Because of the Tree of eternal Fire
Because red is the only Color
The ultimate Lie on the ultimate Dawn
And the apple of all Desire.

The ones who were caught in the one Desire
Were slain in the City of Blood
For the thing that brings the wind of Dawn
Is known as the Setting Sun
And they realized that red is the only Color
When they turned to face the Fire.

The sky sank into a lake of Fire
Burning in tears of Desire
And I realized that red is the only Color
And the world is made of Blood
And I turned my back on the setting Sun
And went out to look for Dawn.

But the Sun went free, and the Fire sang
And the Blood of the starlight was washed in the rain
And the Cursed Color of all Desire fled from the dying Dawn.

It doesn’t hang together very well, because of the color theme, so if you were thinking that you missed my message, don’t! I concentrated on imagery in this poem, not meaning. I personally like poetry to have a distinct, if subtle, message, but I was playing around with pictures this time, and I didn’t bother.

This isn’t actually my favorite kind of poetry. I don’t think it allows nearly enough freedom of expression. Even though it doesn’t rhyme, there are too many rules. It is probably as far as you can get from free-verse! I generally stick to something in between those two extremes. I like rhyme, rhythm, syllabic verse, and conforming stanzas, and I don’t tend to write without them, or to use white space creatively, but I don’t care for so many restrictions. Still it was fun, and I like exploring new kinds of poetry.

Namarie,
Raora