Round—After Hearing Dufay's Rondeau, "Adieu M'Amour"

My palms float loose as lilies on my thighs,
their flat leaves opening into the sky—
"Adieu m'amour," good-bye my love, good-bye.

The wind chimes cold and frozen from the hills.
The veins of winter harden as they kill.
My deep lap opens slowly to the chill.

"Adieu m'amour," good-bye my love, good-bye.
My palms float loose as lilies on my thighs.

by Penny Harter

Penny Harter is published widely in journals and anthologies. Recent books include Along River Road, Lizard Light: Poems From the Earth, and Buried in the Sky. A new collection, The Night Marsh is forthcoming from WordTech Editions in 2008. Winner of three poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, she has also received awards from the Dodge Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, and the first William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award for her work in American Nature Writing 2002. She is a teaching poet for the NJSCA/New Jersey Writers Project. Please visit Penny's Website for more information.

Sleepless Love Trioletlisten

I need the rest I've been denied
by choice—I push myself right through
fatigue, the warning bell inside.
I need the rest. I've been denied
the luxury of time, so I'd
prefer to worry that it's you
I need. The rest I've been denied.
By choice, I push myself right through.

by Bruce Niedt



Bruce W. Niedt is a South Jersey native and Pushcart Prize nominee whose poetry has appeared in Writer's Journal, Edison Literary Review, US 1 Worksheets, miller's pond, The Fairfield Review, Up and Under: the QND Review, and many others. He won first and second prize for poetry at the 2006 Phliadelphia Writers Conference. His latest chapbook, Wire to the Heart, is available from Maverick Duck Press.

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