Senanis Acrostic Sestinas Notes
How the anchor moves
A Senanis Acrostic Sestina begins with six distinct anchor words, each exactly six letters long. Rather than ending a line, an anchor opens a six-word Senanis Moment. The initials of all six words spell that anchor.
Island sparkling light afar near dark.
The six anchors first appear in their chosen order. Across the next five sestets they return in the traditional sestina permutation: 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, then 2–4–6–5–3–1.
The three-moment envoi gathers the anchors in the pairs 2/5, 4/3, and 6/1. The first anchor in each pair opens the moment and supplies its acrostic. The second anchor appears where its own initial occurs within that acrostic.
In Alone, Forget opens the first envoi moment. Its paired anchor, Orange, occupies the second position because O is the second letter of F-O-R-G-E-T. Form and vocabulary therefore shape one another from the selection of the anchors onward.
As in every Senanis form, each six-word moment can stand briefly on its own. The recurring anchors also carry images and meanings across the larger poem, allowing repetition to become movement.