Unless As Stone Is

The sestina is a form in which words repeat regularly, intricately, appearing and reappearing in new contexts with new meanings. Sam Lohmann?s Unless As Stone Is emerged from a few years of living with Dante?s sestina, ?Al poco giorno e al gran cerchio d?ombra.? He allowed the text to appear in its own new ? if irregularly scheduled ? contexts. New translations, new scenery, new meanings; new phrases entered the poem (from García Lorca, from Sappho, from strangers and from loved ones) and found their own patterns. What resulted is a serial poem in seven movements, incorporating several strategies of reincorporation. ?Quandunque i colli fanno più nera ombra? ? ?All our oddity operates / on changing verity.?