I love to play with words–their sounds, their flexibility, their clarity and their ability to obscure.  I suppose this playfulness can get irritating in a preacher.  So I’m going to channel some of that energy into poetry.  Yesterday I re-read and slightly revised a sestina that I wrote during our Lenten Creative Arts Retreat. Sestinas involve the repetition of six end words, and I love the way this form forces you to think of those six words in new ways; the way this form leads you to say things you didn’t know you wanted to say.

So I thought it would be fun to try another sestina. A post-Easter sestina.  Want to play along?

In the comments below, contribute one word that can serve as an end word for a poem on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.  You can think about any of the appearances–“doubting” Thomas, the road to Emmaus, Jesus’ questioning of Peter.  This week’s Gospel reading from the lectionary is Luke 24:36-48.

Please share a word in the comments below.  If I have six words, I’ll work on a poem.  And I invite you to do the same. The nitty gritty details of sestinas are available from poets.org.