Triolet Challenge: More than Honorable Mentions

The Triolet Challenge yielded some wonderful More Than Honorable Mention-winning poems. Enjoy!

High Road to Taos

A flare of sumac, rush of red,
a gleam of yellow, aspen’s gold,
an orange glow: fall leaves are shed.
A flare of sumac, rush of red—
the colors live, though leaves are dead.
Confetti greets the spell of cold:
a flare of sumac, rush of red,
a gleam of yellow, aspen’s gold.

Scott Wiggerman

Bio: Scott Wiggerman is the author of two books of poetry, Vegetables and Other Relationships and Presence, forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press this year. A frequent workshop instructor, he is also an editor for Dos Gatos Press, publisher of the annual Texas Poetry Calendar, now in its thirteenth year.


The City

Trash accrues like interest on a debt
no one remembers ever was incurred.
A body knifed, a splayed-out marionette—
trash accrues like interest on a debt.
A stranger's face is easy to forget:
witnesses disperse without a word.
Trash accrues like interest on a debt
no one remembers. When was it incurred?

José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes

Bio: José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes was born and raised in the Philippines, and worked in finance for five years before coming to the United States to study poetry at Columbia University. His poems have appeared in such journals as American Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, Hudson Review, Rattle, and Pleiades, and have been anthologized in Crowns and Oranges: Works by Young Philippine Poets.


Late November

As sky unfolds its winter shawl
the land collects its sprawling lace
beneath pale pines. The clouds confess
as sky unfolds its winter shawl
around shale shoulders. Hawthorns ice.
Crows take flight and caterwaul
as sky unfolds its winter shawl.
The land collects its sprawling lace.

Janann Dawkins

Bio: Janann Dawkins's work has been featured recently or is upcoming in Two Review, decomP, Poesia, Ouroboros Review, Suss, and Existere, among others. Her chapbook Micropleasure was published by Leadfoot Press in 2008. She resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she assists with editing the eclectic literary journal Third Wednesday.


Film Noir at the Courthouse Door

We could be done with all of this.
If only you would say the word,
I'd go from Mrs. to a Miss.
We could be done with all of this
and yet...I still await your kiss.
Although at this point it may sound absurd,
we could be done with all of this,
If only you would say the word.

Jennifer Schomburg Kanke

Bio: Jennifer Schomburg Kanke serves as an Academic and Pre-Law Advisor at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.


Drizzles and Downpours

In this rainy weather, I want to pull inside
to explore an inner terrain, so far, unknown,
to paddle in mist, in fog, a primeval ride.
In this dreary weather, I want to pull inside
to be alone and quiet, a solitude I can abide
in comfort. Within, my life my own
in this dreary weather. I want to pull inside
to explore. An inner terrain? So far— unknown.

Joan Mazza

Bio: Joan Mazza has worked as a psychotherapist, certified sex therapist, writing coach and seminar leader. Author of six books, including Dreaming Your Real Self(Perigee/Penguin 1998), she has published work in Potomac Review, Möbius, Permafrost, Writer's Digest Magazine, Playgirl, The Writer, and Writer's Journal. She’s now a poet in rural Virginia. website: www.JoanMazza.com


Fear Triolet

What were you scared of when you were young?
Of boys on bikes, strange men in cars,
the dark, the bomb, an iron lung?
What were you scared of when you were young?
The mumps, the measles, white spots on your tongue,
of dogs that bark or green men from Mars?
What were you scared of when you were young?
Of boys on bikes. Strange men in cars.

Sarah Freligh

Bio: Sarah Freligh's poetry and fiction have been widely published in literary journals including The Comstock Review, Iowa Woman, Painted Bride Quarterly, Third Coast, Elysian Fields Quarterly and Tar River Poetry. Her book of poems, Sort of Gone, was published in February 2008 by Turning Point Books.


Beachcomber

Blue stone, violet spiral shell,
Souvenirs of summer in my hand,
Salt relics of our last farewell.
Blue stone, violet spiral shell,
Sea-tumbled fragments cast a spell--
Brown glass a tiger’s eye in sand.
Blue stone, violet spiral shell,
Souvenirs of summer in my hand.

Charlotte Mandel

Bio: Charlotte Mandel's seventh book of poetry ROCK VEIN SKY (Midmarch Arts Press) was listed as a Best Poetry Book Read for Fall 2008 by Monserrat Review. Previous titles include two poem-novellas of feminist biblical revision, The Life of Mary, and The Marriages of Jacob. She recently retired from teaching poetry writing for several years at Barnard College Center for Research on Women.

Walking Home

Your smallest smile belongs to me
as day begins to rightly fade,
for bluest nights are jubilee.
Your smallest smile belongs to me;
the glint of teeth is but a plea.
Your eyes are quick. Don’t be afraid.
Your smallest smile belongs to me
as day begins to rightly fade.

Rachel Lim

BIo: Rachel Lim is an undergraduate studying English and East Asian Studies at the University of Virginia.

Triolet Challenge Winner: Rita Mae Reese

Terrible Holy Joy: Reading the Norton Anthology of Poetry in Bed

We take our poetry lying down
And smuggle old words into our sleep.
As we trudge through Pope to get to Brown
We take our poetry lying down.
We take the old women and the boys that drown
And by morning lose every line but keep
“Their terrible holy joy.” We take our poetry lying down,
And smuggle old worlds into our sleep.

Rita Mae Reese



Bio Note:
Rita Mae Reese's poems have appeared in New England Review, Southern Review and The Nation, among other places. She teaches writing in UW-Madison's Continuing Studies program and is currently working on a book of poems about Flannery O'Connor.

UPDATE: Triolet Challenge Results!

It is with delight that I announce the winner of the Rondeau Roundup's Triolet Challenge!

The winner is Rita Mae Reese for her triolet "Terrible Holy Joy: Reading the Norton Anthology of Poetry In Bed."
She will receive a gift certificate for $25 from Amazon.com and her poem will be featured on the Rondeau Roundup Blog on February 8.

More than Honorable Mentions went to Charlotte Mandel, Rachel Lim, Sarah Freligh, Jose Ocampo Reyes, Joan Mazza, Scott Wiggerman, Janann Dawkins, and Jennifer Kanke.

Details about the blog's next contest, the Paul Laurence Dunbar Rondeau Award, can be found on the Rondeau Roundup Blog at
Dunbar Award
Deadline for the Dunbar Rondeau Award will be February 26, 2010.

Thanks for your patience with the judging process and thanks for letting me read your triolets!

Best,
Allison Joseph, Rondeau Mistress
The Rondeau Roundup Blog

Announcing the Paul Laurence Dunbar Rondeau Award

In honor of African-American History Month and in memory of a great American poet, the Rondeau Roundup Blog proudly announces the

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR RONDEAU AWARD
http://therondeauroundup.blogspot.com/

This award is given to the best rondeau on the subject of African-American history, life or culture submitted for consideration to the Rondeau Roundup Blog starting February 9th (the anniversary of Dunbar's death) and continuing until Friday, February 26th, 2010. The author of the winning rondeau will receive a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate and publication of his/her rondeau on the Rondeau Roundup. Up to five More Than Honorable Mentions may also be selected for publication on the Rondeau Roundup Blog.

Rules of Entry:

Writers of any race or cultural background may enter, but the subject of the rondeau must relate to African-American history, life, or culture.

Only one rondeau may be entered per poet. No entry fee, but entrants are encouraged to make voluntary donations to the United Negro College Fund.

For this contest, I'm looking for rondeaus that follow the standard definition, as given on poets.org:

"The rondeau’s form is not difficult to recognize: as it is known and practiced today, it is composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet. The rentrement consists of the first few words or the entire first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line of both the second and third stanzas. Two rhymes guide the music of the rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR aabbaR."

Example of the form: "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

No other poetic form will be accepted for this contest. Non-rhyming rondeaus can be entered, but the blog moderator's preference is for rhymed and metered rondeaus.

To enter, send a single rondeau on the topic of African-American history, life or culture to

rondeauroundup(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @) from February 9, 2010 to February 26, 2010.

The title of the winning rondeau will be announced on the Rondeau Roundup Blog on February 28, 2010, with publication of the winning poem and the More than Honorable Mention poems to follow in early March 2010.

UPDATE: Apologies on the Triolet Challenge!

The Triolet Challenge has not yet been judged--apologies for the delay. Life got busy for your Rondeau Roundup mistress.
Contest results will be posted on February 8, 2010.

Next Contest at the Rondeau Roundup: A Triolet Challenge

The first two contests at the Rondeau Roundup have been rondeau contests, so it's time to mix it up a bit with another form.

The next contest at the Rondeau Roundup is a Triolet Challenge!

Not familiar with the form? It's an eight-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme:

explanation courtesy
Triolet

The features of the Triolet are:

* 8 lines.
* Two rhymes.
* 5 of the 8 lines are repeated or refrain lines.
* First line repeats at the 4th and 7th lines.
* Second line repeats at the 8th line.
* Rhyme scheme (where an upper-case letter indicates the appearance of an identical line, while a lower-case letter indicates a rhyme with each line designated by the same lower-case or upper-case letter):

A
B
a - Rhymes with 1st line.
A - Identical to 1st line.
a - Rhymes with 1st line.
b - Rhymes with 2nd line.
A - Identical to 1st line.
B - Identical to 2nd line.


Here's another explanation, courtesy poets.org
Triolet

For this contest, I'll accept two(*2*) triolets per entrant, since the form is only eight lines long. For this contest, there is no theme, but only triolets can win. No other form will be accepted. There is no entry fee.

First prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com
Up to five More than Honorable Mentions will also be chosen to appear on the Rondeau Roundup Blog.

Contest opens December 1, 2009 and closes December 28, 2009. Winners will be notified by January 15, 2010.

Send your triolets to
rondeauroundup(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

in the body of an e-mail message.
No attachments, please. If entering two triolets, put both in the same e-mail.

Here's a sample triolet by your Rondeau mistress to give you an idea of what the form can do:

Triolet for Janis

A Today I need your Texas wail,
B your ragged voice of pain and hurt;
a I need to walk your lonely trail.
A Today I need your Texas wail
a to buoy me up when I grow frail,
b to pick me up from ash and dirt.
A Today I need your Texas wail,
B that ragged voice of pain and hurt.

Allison Joseph

(rhyme scheme marked next to poem for illustrative purposes; you need not include it with your submission)

Autumn Rondeau Contest: More than Honorable Mentions!

Apologies for the delay in getting the Autumn Rondeau Contest More than Honorable Mentions up on the blog! Here they are--you will agree they were worth the wait:


Oak Tree Chronicle

Oak leaves hang on, blithely outride
the wind, swaying dun-colored, dried.
Acorns scatter in jazzy rounds
of random drumming on the ground,
the squirrels’ come-and-get-it guide.

Though almost in tatters beside
birches gorgeous in gold as brides
papery yellows swirling down,
oak leaves hang on.

School kids shuffle kicking sky high
red mauve confetti as they glide
laugh and leap into crackling sounds.
Hickory, maple, jumbled mounds
raked and vacuumed, dumped, nullified.
Oak leaves hang on.

Charlotte Mandel

Bio: Charlotte Mandel's seventh book of poetry ROCK VEIN SKY (Midmarch Arts Press) was listed as a Best Poetry Book Read for Fall 2008 by Monserrat Review. Previous titles include two poem-novellas of feminist biblical revision, The Life of Mary, and The Marriages of Jacob. She recently retired from teaching poetry writing for several years at Barnard College Center for Research on Women. Visit her at Charlotte Mandel.


Fall Rondeau

It’s fall. I’m knitting pairs of winter socks
and trying not to see the veeing flocks
fleeing South. Traitors. It’s not cold
yet. The locals have just begun to fold
away the lawn chairs, to pull up the docks.

Instead of raking, or taking rambling walks
I sit outside, stitch and purl the sumac’s
flaming red, the elm’s glowing gold.
It’s fall I’m knitting

into these socks. My Southern blood balks
at the Midwestern winter coming. It stalks
my every thought. And yet, each sock that’s rolled
off my needles staves off winter’s toehold.
It’s fall. I’m knitting.

Heidi Czerwiec


Bio: Heidi Czerwiec is assistant professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of North Dakota, where she is the Director of the annual UND Writers Conference. She is the author of Hiking the Maze (Finishing Line Press, 2009), the recipient of a 2009 Bush Foundation/Dakota Creative Connections artist grant, and has poems and translations published or forthcoming in Measure, Nimrod, Evansville Review, Southern Indiana Review, Hunger Mountain, and International Poetry Review.


Rondeau: Autumn Leaves

These autumn leaves -- they burn citrine
As pumpkins glow. The stiff rake leans
Upon the apple tree, its fruit
Decayed and brown along the roots.
We dress warm, groom the backyard clean --

We make three heaps, breathe the pristine
Air. The sky: fat, a nectarine --
Now blackens to a crown of soot.
These autumn leaves --

It's all we care for, all we've seen
All day. Our mother says fifteen
Minutes and to wipe off our boots
Before coming in. But we hoot
Like imps; burst, like a time machine,
These autumn leaves.

William Soule

Bio: William Soule is a young poet currently living in Utah. His works have appeared in Read This Magazine, elimae, Tattoo Highway, and the delinquent, among others — he is also a former One Night Stanzas Featured Poet. He runs the webzine Clearfield Review, and works as a Literature Gallery Director for artist-networking site deviantART.

Texan's Lament

I miss the hues of death, the flaming trees,
the rotting sweetness carried by the breeze.
Escaping winter meant I made a trade -
I had to give up seeing summer fade -
surrendering fall to avoid the freeze.

I even miss the mold that made me sneeze -
the microbes in the air that made me wheeze.
Perhaps up north is where I should have stayed.
I miss the hues of death.

The faded green leaves here do not appease
my need for change, a turning climate's tease.
This was my choice - can't say I was betrayed;
and yet each year I find myself dismayed
when autumn does not visit me with ease.
I miss the hues of death.

Dorla Moorehouse

Bio: Dorla Moorehouse is a writer, dancer, and bookseller living in Austin, Texas. When not pursuing one of these three careers, she serves as the poetry editor of Gloomcupboard. You can find out more about her work at her blog, Dorla's Poetry and Prose.


A Distant Line of Hills

The air is clear, and leaves, undone,
drift in zigzags – russet, crimson.
Wild purple phlox and goldenrod
in rearview mirrors wave and nod,
like summer’s parting guests. And on

the complicated road we run
we take a deeper breath. The sun
ignites a sumac’s velvet pods.
The air is clear

and apple-crisp; light is honey
on tree-trunks in the afternoon.
We didn’t know, and find it odd:
behind the slowly molting woods
lies a long and low horizon.
The air is clear.

David Eye

Bio: David Eye earned a midlife MFA at Syracuse University in 2008. This followed a 17-year career in the theatre, and four years in the military, so he may be the only poet who has spent time in both the U.S. Army and Cats. While at SU, he garnered awards for his work as a writing instructor, and interned at BOA Editions, Ltd. His poems have appeared in Waccamaw Journal, Stone Canoe, roger, and Critical Encounters with Texts, a university reader. This fall, David is teaching English composition at St. John's University and will be conducting workshops at Manhattan College. He is completing his first book of poems, mostly during the hour-and-a-half commute from Harlem to Staten Island.