Prose from Poetry Magazine

Two Do-It-Yourself Sestina Starters

By Terrance Hayes

DIY SESTINA FOR EMMETT TILL
Image: 2 box columns with words in them, one empty box in the middle, and 2 more box columns, with 1 long box underneath. DIY SESTINA FOR THE GHOSTS WATCHING YOURSELF

Editor's Note:

“Not Too Hard to Master” is a new series of poets writing on form and sharing a prompt. This is the second essay in the series. Read Terrance Hayes’s “Your Do-It-Yourself Sestina,” “‘Envoi’ of William H. Johnson’s ‘Nude,’” and “Illustrated Octavia Butler Do-It-Yourself Sestina.”

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Terrance Hayes earned a BA at Coker College and an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. In his poems, in which he occasionally invents formal constraints, Hayes considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity. “Hayes’s fourth book puts invincibly restless wordplay at the...

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Two Do-It-Yourself Sestina Starters

Poetry and Form

Not a Game