A sestina is made of 7 stanzas. In the first 6 stanzas there are 6 lines, with the last word of every line rotating between 6 words in a specific word. The last stanza has 3 lines.
(The letters represent the last word of each line, and are non-rhyming)
Stanza 1: A, B, C, D, E, F
Stanza 2: F, A, E, B, D, C
Stanza 3: C, F, D, A, B, E
Stanza 4: E, C, B, F, A, D
Stanza 5: D, E, A, C, F, B
Stanza 6: B, D, F, E, C, A
Stanza 7: Then the last stanza is three lines either E, C, A or A, C, E (and traditionally would include the words from B, D, F in those three lines as well in some order)
This site has an example and color-coded directions:
How to Write a Sestina: Exercise Poetry
This site has more examples: Poetry Foundation: Sestina
Here's an example I did for NaPo this year: (I sort of fudged some of the words by changing word beginnings or endings)
Spoiler
i find myself sometimes afraid
of starless nights
where the sky is unbroken
and all that separates
the earth from the heavens
is left to my imagination and
the horizon seems far and empty and
i wonder if God is ever afraid
to touch the earth from the heavens
when this doubt and fear fills my night.
Does He ever contemplate separation?
Can someone whole love someone so broken?
Cracked bodies and hearts broken
much too far to be fixed, and
i find myself wanting to separate
out the good and the bad, but I'm afraid
there'd be nothing left, like the empty night.
So I look up beyond stardust towards heaven
and pray that there's a God in heaven
who remembers His Son's broken
body, who lay three days and nights
who gave his life for my own and
loves me even when i find myself afraid.
No, all my failings must not truly separate
me even when the stars have separated
from their designated place in the heavens
and the world doesn't make sense and i'm afraid,
surely even then, God loves me though broken.
for He knows what it is to die and
knows what it is to miss the sun in the night.
For God created the sun and stars that hide tonight
he tooks the waters and land and separated
them to form earth and sea and
molding out clay chosen from the heavens
He made me, in His image, unbroken
and whispers that i do not need to be afraid.
His words echo in my ears and i feel now less afraid.
For i believe tonight even when the sky appears unbroken
that my unseparated God is not only bound to the heavens.
Best of luck in your writing! I believe in you!
