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This poem is in a style that is one of my fascinations. It is called a sestina - one of a class of poems that I refer to as 'pattern poems'. The other pattern poem style I know is called the 'pantoum' - I find sestinas to be far more difficult to write.

A sestina is a poem with six verses and an ending couplet. Each verse has six lines. The ending words for the lines of all six verses are the same, in a weaving pattern as follows:

• 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
• 6 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 3
• 3 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 5
• 5 - 3 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 4
• 4 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 6 - 2
• 2 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 3 - 1

The ending couplet must have all the words in any order.

The title of the piece - Alegria - is a Spanish word. (I have changed langages; all of my recent writings have been Greek.) I personally find certain parts of its nuance to be utterly untranslatable. However, the closest approximation I can manage is "Joy."

This came about because of my reaction to music. There is something that I refer to as the bardic gift - the ability to shape music to carry emotons, that can be honed to other tasks, but is at its best with music. I know several Bards.

My own gift is that one's bastard child. I have the ability to meld myself with the music, to become it, shape myself around it, and make it mine and me its. I sing with great power, because I align myself to what the song is, and what it can be - rather than a shaper, I am an infiltrator.

I tend to get very high off of music with inherent power. This is my Alegria.