The Sealey Challenge, Day 7: So to Speak by Terrance Hayes

There are many inventive poems in the book, and some art by Hayes (including the cover, Marvin Robed), and a few sestinas - always a hard form to pull off. I found Hayes' DIY sestina instructions and patterns in the back of the book fascinating. I've written one sestina in my life, and hadn't thought it worth trying for another, because I that the first felt so labored both to make and to read. But perhaps I will pick up the gauntlet that Hayes has thrown down, especially because he provides good tips and encouragement for the form. I think that the trick to a successful sestina is finding good end-words (the teleutons) and playing with them a little with homonyms and variations.