A sestina is a structured poetic form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three-line envoi (or tercet). The defining feature of a sestina is its intricate pattern of word repetition. The end words of the first stanza are used in a specific order in the subsequent stanzas, creating a cyclical and interwoven effect. The pattern for the end words is as follows:

Stanza 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
Stanza 2: 1-6, 2-1, 3-5, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3 (from stanza 1)
Stanza 3: 1-6, 2-1, 3-5, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3 (from stanza 2)
Stanza 4: 1-6, 2-1, 3-5, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3 (from stanza 3)
Stanza 5: 1-6, 2-1, 3-5, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3 (from stnza 4)
Stanza 6: 1-6, 2-1, 3-5, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3 (from stanza 5)
Envoi: (usually incorporates all six end words, often in the middle and at the end of the lines)

The form is known for its complexity and the challenge it presents to poets, as it demands creativity in using the same end words while developing a coherent theme or narrative. Sestinas often explore emotional or philosophical themes, with the repetition enhancing the sense of nostalgia or longing.

Art is the passion of the mind when the thought is of life or death
Stanza 1
1) Is one a fake if one must ask “What is art?”
2) A forger of a work of genius is unaware of creative passion.
3) Who will give it thought
4) to decipher the phony from the work of skill except those with an ardent mind.
5) To be a counterfeit is to be unknowing of life
6) and lost to all reflections save for death.
Stanza 2
1-6) In brain and in body, the paint and canvas, breathing death.
2-1) One is like a larva to ask, “What is art?”
3-5) It is Life!
4-2) As a soul of passion
5-4) is an inventive mind
6-3) and an inspired thought.
Stanza 3
1-6) Certainly, to claim original thought
2-1) is to escape death,
3-5) for what is an eternity without the validation of the masterwork? In mind,
4-2) a desiccated worm on a sizzling sidewalk, the canvas of hell is an imitation of art.
5-4) If one is not filled with the maker then one is made empty of passion
6-3) and dead; even the maggot can not feed on the corpse of a hollow life.
Stanza 4
1-6) One is just as one was before one was born, dead to life
2-1) but given by God the opportunity of thought
3-5) the young insect, by divine passion
4-2) and by God’s command overcomes death,
5-4) caterpillar becomes butterfly, hollow cocoon left to decay, all that is and was and will be, Art.
6-3) To subsist is to understand the lack of euphemisms and not mind,
Stanza 5
1-6) yet the phony proclaim, air is all that consists of the mind
2-1) and being born one survives to pass away through out life
3-5) and this is true with one exception that carries on beyond the grave, Art!
4-2) So rather than exist to fear fatality in thought
5-4) rejoice in creation beyond death
6-3) that is of God in holy passion.
Stanza 6
1-6) The canvas of heaven is hot with passion
2-1) just as the path to hell scorches the mind
3-5) with notions of perpetual creation without art
4-2) but in a time without end, death becomes life
5-4) when one excepts ones design as willed by God’s thought
6-3) and ones existence as God’s art.
Envoi
If in life one’s mind can be in this world as artist,
and align each imaginative thought with God’s passion
Then one becomes a masterpiece beyond death as sentient and awe-inspiring art.