Twenty tourists in a motor boat watching marine plankton bioluminesce

by Rachel Lewis

This poem was a winner in the Ways to be Wilder poetry challenge ,in association with People Need Nature, on Young Poets Network (YPN) in 2016.

Judge Jen Hadfield said: "Concrete poems like this make the reader ask what's happening in the white space of the page. Visual rhythm is as important as beats or syllables here: as our eye tracks the poem we feel the zigzag of hands cutting through the water here, lighting a trail. It can be challenging to make poetry about such magical natural phenomena. You do well to tell the story simply at first, with the fluency of the night sea evoked in those three yoked adjectives 'starless blackly softly' ¬ (proving, incidentally, that rules such as 'take all the adjectives out of your poems' are made to be broken.) In your very moving poem, plankton and humans can discuss each other. Imagine what a poem-poster this would make, printed in white perhaps on a black ground, and drawn into the centre of the page; or appearing and fading line by line on a black laptop screen. "

Rachel Lewis

Rachel Lewis is a winner of Young Poets Network Dramatic Monologue, Cape Farewell, and Ways to be Wilder poetry challenges. She was also a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2009 and 2012.