Poetry and haiku

This morning is poetry class.  I didn't have much to turn in last time, except for some haiku, which is one of my favorite forms anyway.  I wrote them when I was away at that workshop last month.  We'll see today if the others have any good suggestions for improvement. 

The traffic moves by
Past the tall frozen branches
The winter watchmen


A siren screams out
As it passes my window
And all else is hushed


Wintery gray sky
A bare branch twisting upward
Opening the clouds


A packed suitcase waits
Along unfamiliar walls
Waiting to go home

This time we were to write a sestina.  Did you ever write a sestina?  It's a really wonderful exercise for your brain.  It has six stanzas and each stanza has six lines.  And then there is a three line stanza at the end.  The first stanza is the most important because the ending words in that stanza will determine the ending words in the next five. 
The ending word of line 6, in the first stanza, becomes the ending the ending word of line 1 in the second stanza. 
The ending word of line 1 becomes the ending word of line 2. 
The ending word of line 5 becomes the ending word of line 3. 
The ending word of line 2 becomes the ending word of line 4. 
The ending word of line 4 becomes the ending word of line 5. 
The ending word of line 3 becomes the ending word of line 6. 
The same thing happens in each succeeding stanza. 
Then the last three lines in the ending stanza must use all six ending words in any order.