BUTTON SESTINA
By Jen Bervin

The sestina has been used as a poetic form since the twelfth century; it is based on six repetitive end words patterned over the course of 36 lines. In The Discovery of Poetry (Harcourt, 2001), Frances Mayes maps the pattern onto a hexagon showing how the end words interrelate geometrically and make a perfectly interconnected system. It seemed to me very like sewing on a button; I had just received an envelope of small ones as a gift.

Black printer's backing board, silk thread,
abalone buttons, silk tissue, hand-typed text.

Open edition. $60.