A sestina is a poetic form. It consists of six-line stanzas, with each stanza's lines ending in the same six words, in a different order for each stanza. Then there is a final stanza, called the envoi, in which each line contains two of the six words.
You can see examples of sestinas here, or provide your own six words to see what form comes out.
It is incredibly hard to write a sestina that doesn't sound forced, and hardly anybody ever manages it. A really good sestina, when read aloud, is not immediately identifiable as a sestina. It just sounds like there's a rhythm in there, but you can't quite place it until you read it that third or fourth time, and see it on a page.
Most sestinas, however, work for the first stanza, and possibly the second, but after that you feel that the author is just saying any old nonsense just to stay in the form.
Sestinas work best when they are about a repetitive topic. Examples might be a child's game, or an addiction, or a daily event. So I thought that the latest topic on Inspire Me Thursday - Breath - would be ideal for it. Unfortunately, so far, it just sounds like, after the first stanza, I'm merely babbling to fit the form.
I've had a really hard time writing lately. Everything feels forced, both fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. I keep hoping that if I force it long enough, it'll start to flow. But the pump refuses to be primed.
man o man I can relate to that last statement, I write in a non traditional method for my work and so I rely on that flow daily but sometimes it just gets clogged up and so I push and push, usually to my dismay it does no good. Hard lesson to learn to spend my energy preparing myself for the reception of the work and not to force it.
I loved writing my sestina. Once i sat down and thought about it...it just seemed to flow and come out very naturally.