I wrote a poem in the form of a sestina and I fell in love with this form. A sestina is a poem with six stanzas each containing six lines, and ending with a triplet. All of the stanzas have the same six end words and they follow a fixed pattern. I recently had this specific poem published in my University's literature and art's publication, called NOTA. It will be featured in this semesters publication, I am very excited for this opportunity! I hope you enjoy reading my sestina poem.

Listening to the Waves

We were laying down in the warm beach sand

We looked for shooting stars and watched the moon

Wrapped up together listening to the crashing waves

And felt like this moment would never pass

But we woke up and realized that this wasn’t a dream

You left the following morning

And from now on I would be alone in the morning

I would look at the jar of sand

You would be in the field and to think this was your dream

Remembering our moments together all tangled up and lying with the moon

I would look up at the sky and remember the moments that had passed

The only thing that would keep me going was listening to the waves

Driving past the bus stop where we said goodbye and waved

I remember laying in bed until the next morning

I felt like life was empty without you in it and hoping this would pass

It had been seven months and I kept looking at that jar of sand

I was holding it together knowing we were watching the same moon

Since I couldn’t be with you all I could do was dream

I would hope that you were thinking of me and dreaming

I sat alone on the beach now to watch the waves

It was becoming more difficult to wake up each morning

I could barely remember the nights we would lie awake with the moon

But I would look at that jar of sand

And remember you would come home and this would pass

I watched the leaves fall when you were supposed to be home and the season passed

Then I saw the men in uniform walk to my door and thought I had to be dreaming

It was like the hourglass ran out of sand

I could hear the ocean in the background and the crashing of the waves

I would never forget this morning

You were gone and I was here with tear stained cheeks lying awake with the moon

I felt numb and let the light shine through the curtains from the moon

I couldn’t leave our bed making sure your smell was still there and had not passed

I couldn’t get out of bed to even make coffee and listen to the waves in the morning

I had no purpose and gave up on all my dreams

You were everything to me and I couldn’t even hear the waves

I couldn’t even look at the jar of sand

We were only sixteen when you made this your dream

Now grown up and a widow just alone with the moon

Our hourglass had finally run out of sand