How do you capture the extraordinary beauty of nature in written language? The winners of our Nature Poetry Competition did a sensational job wielding the power of poetry to seize our world in verse – read on to discover the names who took away the grand prize and join Guest Judge Aimee Nezhukumatathil in celebrating their work.
Winner:
“Blobfish Will Save the World,” by myocelle (Philippines), age 17
This poem is astonishing and a lush, glimmering net cast into the deep! I love how it takes an animal often ridiculed and gathers instead tenderness and hunger, salt and memory, and pulls them into the same breath. The speaker’s longing moves like an ocean wave, carrying the sweetness of konpeitō and the ache of distance, the way memory sometimes reminds us of grease and ocean brine all at once. The poem’s reach—from Zhejiang to Biloxi to the ocean’s utter darkness—feels both cosmic and intimate, a reminder that what we love travels through us, changes shape, softens, sinks, then glows again. How miraculous, how heartbreaking, that the deep’s own ‘funny dumpling’ could hold both a childhood bedroom and brace the pressures of the sea. This is language that makes me want to praise the known and unknown world of the deep seas.
Runner-Up:
“Girl in an Oyster,” by Sophia Mendham (United States), age 17
This poem is a kind of surprising excavation, unearthing the strange, tender architecture of memory with a language that shimmers between the surreal and the elemental. I love how it moves through its landscape—mangroves, alligators, oysters—as if each image is a small, miraculous pulse, and the speaker’s hunger, both literal and imaginative, becomes a way to measure the world. There’s a rare generosity here: the girl from the oyster, the glowing teepees, the neurons working along footpaths that show that they are fragile and monstrous, intimate and universal sometimes all at once. The diction is vibrant and luminous and does not rush to explain but trusts the weight of what cannot be fully understood. This is a poem that moves like a body of water in the Everglades—fluid, mysterious, and impossible to forget.
Best Peer Review:
“Diagnosis: Terminal,” reviewed by somebody000 (United States), age 17
I feel like this feedback was the perfect blend of being encouraging and specific BOTH in ways that this piece can be improved AND made clearer. Often peer reviews are specific about their praise or their concerns but rarely both, which makes the writer (unconsciously or not) weigh one side heavier than the other. I just adored the coaching tone and positive encouragement overall. Bravo!
Piece Finalists:
“Everything, Nothing, and The Things In Between,” by Cherry Pie (United States)
“Homes Made of Bones,” by Micahmp3 (Canada)
“Kathmandu is a Cirque, Do You Feel the Crescent Eyes?” by Yeshe Olivia (Nepal)
“Monsoon Breakfast,” by coconotmelon (Pakistan)
“Return,” by Ella Tang (United States)
“Us and It,” by Weylyn (Spain)
Peer Review Finalist:
“Slumber in the Forest,” reviewed by Mia Remience (United States)
