Two Do-It-Yourself Sestina Starters
DIY SESTINA FOR EMMETT TILL
“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 service of strong emotions: a son’s frustration, a husband’s love, a citizen...