Finalist in the "Trio of Triolets" contest: Judith Pacht

The final finalist in the "Trio of Triolets" contest is Judith Pacht.

Enjoy her take on the form below:

The Year of the Heart (of the House)

The room exposed, the twisted pieces

warm.  The year of the heart of the house

alive but cold, age-bitten, reaches

a room exposed, the twisted pieces

ugly but loved.  Re-creased creases   

in reread books.  A grieving mouse,

his room exposed.  The twisted pieces

warm, this year of the heart of the house.

From the table’s secret parts,

the room eviscerated now,

the homeless mouse bewildered starts

(from the table’s secret parts)

to build another home, his heart

still willing, his head confused asks how

from the table’s secret parts,

the room eviscerated now.

I know that mouse too well.  Somehow  

the yellowed ugly wallboard’s loved.

Its past has passed.  Light strikes the now.          

I know that mouse too well.  Somehow

a bird’s flown in.  Her brooding eye allows    

a kind of inside sight.  A dove.

I know that mouse too well.   Somehow    

the yellowed ugly wallboard’s loved.

Bio: Judith Pacht’s Summer Hunger (Tebot Bach), won the 2011 PEN Southwest Book Award for Poetry.  Her chapbooks, User’s Guide and St. Louis Suite (Finishing Line Press) were published in 2009 and 2010.   Her first chapbook and poetry collection, Falcon), was published in 2004. 

Finalist in the "Trio of Triolets" contest: Jake Sheff

Jake Sheff's three triolets below earned him finalist status in the "Trio of Triolets" contest! Check them out below:

I heard the sunshine fly its pole…

The bee is heaven’s eye. Its buzz

evacuates the sky. Its soul

is solar-sized in scope. Its fuzz

is heaven’s eyebrow. Why? Its buzz-

cut – striped with coal and hollandaise –

equips the pollen’s article

of faith and role. The busy bees

evacuate the sky and soul.

Leave your bedroom’s little fold

Love me brittle, leave me strong.

Love your burden we are told.

Death is undersold but wrong.

Love me, till me, leave me long.

Death is never old in song.

Nothing hurts just to behold.

Love’s rebuttal leaves my tongue:

Love's a burden, young and cold. 

It's awful

how a stop sign makes you stop.

Your slow emotions race. You spot

the post; suspended like a drop

of fallen upward blood… You stop

to ask how that could be. Your top

is bottomed out. It's gone to pot –

the heart’s design (and how!) – to stop

your heart; the law’s unlawful spot.

Bio: Jake Sheff is a major and pediatrician in the US Air Force, married with a daughter and three pets. Currently home is the Mojave Desert. Poems of Jake’s are in Marathon Literary Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Cossack Review and elsewhere. His chapbook is “Looting Versailles” (Alabaster Leaves Publishing). He considers life an impossible sit-up, but plausible. 

First Prize Winner in the "Trio of Triolets" Contest: Laura Bandy

The "Trio of Triolets" contest yielded a lot of wonderful entries! Thanks to all who
entered for such a great contest!

Congrats to the first-prize winner, Laura Bandy, whose winning triolets are below!

Triolet 007

There are always two girls in a Bond flick,

One who will make it, the other who won’t.

Deciding which one you are is the trick.

There are always two girls in a bind. Be quick

Because James wants to put out the lights, click —

Are you twin sets and sock hops, or safe words and chokes?

There are always two girls. Tick tock tick.

One who will make it, the other who won’t.

Pick-Up Line Triolet with Cocaine: Elbo Room, Chicago

She likes a line now and again, that’s all.

Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

he asks, then if she wants to party in the stalls.

She‘d like a line now.  And again. That’s all

it takes to hit the ceiling, star the neon, small

the world beneath. Red-lit faces, cracked shot glass

held at fractured lines again. She likes it all.

How everything hurts when she falls!  Heaven.

Tom Petty’s American Girl

You have to take it easy, baby, and make it last all night

to be a real American girl. To be a real boy, everyone knows

takes bravado and no more nose-growing, Pinocchio. Lighten

up, take it easy, don’t be a baby, baby. Gender is fluid all night,

you could be anyone under the stars. Stripes, spots, let’s get this right —

girls will be boys and boys will kills girls. We count the rows.

Baby, you’ll take it. It’s easy.  We make it all feel like night.

Girl? Boy? Everyone knows America isn’t real. 

Bio: Laura Bandy teaches at the University of Illinois-Springfield. 
She lives in Jacksonville, Illinois, home of the Ferris Wheel.

Contest Winners! Trio of Triolets Contest

Apologies for the wait, but here are the names of the winners of the TRIO of TRIOLETS CONTEST!

The winner is Laura Bandy for her set of three triolets!

Finalists are Jake Sheff and Judith Pacht!

Thanks to everyone who entered! If you aren't a winner or finalist, please watch your email.  I'm putting together an e-anthology of triolets, and will be choosing which triolets to publish from the entries to this contest.

Congrats to our contest winners!  The winning triolets will be posted throughout January 2018!

Trio of Triolets Update

Thanks for all the great entries for the "Trio of Triolets" contest!

The winners of the contest have been contacted and will be announced on December 18, 2017!

If you entered the contest and didn't win, please know that I am collecting triolets for the first-ever anthology devoted to the triolet form!  The entries for the contest will form the backbone of this anthology.

Happy Holidays from the The Rondeau Roundup!

Best,
Allison Joseph, Editor
The Rondeau Roundup

Trio of Triolets Contest Update

Thanks to all the poets who sent entries for the Trio of Triolets Contest.

I received far more entries than I anticipated, and have a lot of reading to do.

Winners will be informed of their winning status on or before December 15, 2017.

In addition to winners featured on the blog, I’m planning to create a PDF anthology of triolets from this contest.  If your triolet is selected for the PDF anthology (tentatively titled Terrific Triolets), I will let you know by January 15, 2018. This downloadable anthology will be the first entirely triolet anthology published (please correct me if you know of another).

Best,

Allison Joseph, Editor

The Rondeau Roundup

Publication Award: Learning to Cope Poetry Prize

A publication award-winner  from one of our recent contests, the Learning to Cope Poetry Prize!

How Our New Immigration Policies are Like the Bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef

... as the algae provide the coral with 90% of its energy, after expelling the algae the coral begins to starve. –Wikipedia on coral bleaching

Starvation starts the day you spit them out,

those guests you harbored, off whose strength you fed

until the times turned hard. You had some doubts

but didn’t dare show weakness. So you led

with confidence. “We don’t need them,” you said.

You drove them off; you celebrate the rout

insisting it will make us strong. Instead,

starvation starts the day you spit them out.

Just listen to the garbage that you spout

to feed the hate, whip up the fear and dread.

It’s criminal, the lies you tell about

those guests you harbored, off whose strength you fed.

We all were glad enough to eat the bread

they baked and use their labor in our drought-

struck fields. Oh yes, it’s all good fellowship ahead

until the times turned hard. You had some doubts,

I think. I could be wrong. You always shout

the loudest when you’re anxious. That inbred

team of flunkies trembled at your pout

but didn’t dare show weakness. So you led—

at least, you call it leading. Better dead

than stranded in some borderland redoubt

the wrong side of the national watershed.

And when you close that border to the south—

starvation starts.

 Tiel Aisha Ansari