Spiritual Love (Structured sestina)

Spiritual Love (Structured sestina)

In early Springtime I met a spirit;
she promised me love for eternity.
I did not know yet her concealed meaning,
accepted her heart exchanging nothing;
I learned to rue the bargain and still strive
to return her heart and regain my life.

In this ancient place, if you save a life
you're forever bound to her in spirit.
This part of the bargain she did not strive
to warn when promising eternity,
so now all my goals and dreams are nothing
unless and until she provides meaning.

She took advantage of my good meaning
so she is in control of my whole life.
Would that I had skipped that day with nothing,
let her keep her heart and stifling spirit,
then thoughts of surviving eternity
would not cause this ongoing need to strive.

Regardless, I must continue to strive,
in relentless struggle, find new meaning,
so we are not bound all eternity;
success will ensure freedom and new life;
heart's need for privacy from that spirit
dictates all - leaves me with almost nothing.

Hope for release is better than nothing:
there's many worthy goals for me to strive,
sure glasses shall often hold good spirit,
many hale friends will give cheer its meaning;
let us not get bogged down by some trick of life
when before stretches all eternity.

Ah, blast away this cursed eternity!
Succor is not anything but nothing,
just more of her, and less of the good life
no matter how long or how hard I strive;
I begin to understand the meaning
of pure love by disembodied spirit.

My protected life spans eternity
Through troubled spirit whom I gave nothing;
such greed makes me strive to deny meaning.

"The sestina is a French form . . .. It consists of 39 lines divided into 6 sestets and one triplet, called the envoi." (Citing Turco, The New Book of Forms) retrieved from <http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page9.html> on 27 March 2011
Sestina: "A sestina (also, sextina, sestine, or sextain) is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet (called its envoy or tornada), for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time; if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531. This organization is referred to as retrogradatio cruciata ("retrograde cross"). These six words then appear in the tercet as well, with the tercet's first line usually containing 6 and 2, its second 1 and 4, and its third 5 and 3...." - retrieved from Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina> on 27 March 2011.
The first ever sestina, by Arnaut Daniel, the form's 12th century inventor, may be read in French with English translation at <http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/arnaut_daniel/arnaut_daniel_09.php>.