< Vera >

by Jack Cooper

We’ll meet again
Don’t know where, don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
just like you always do,
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds
far away

So will you please say hello
to the folks that I know
tell them I won’t be long.
they’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song

We’ll meet again
Don’t know where, don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again

Words taken in the order of the Fibonacci sequence from We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn.

This poem is commended in the Bletchley Park poetry challenge on Young Poets Network (YPN).

So Mayer, who wrote and judged the challenge, said that of this poem, “Very clever indeed: using the Fibonacci sequence as a generative constraint to uncover a haunting poem encoded, like a secret love letter, in ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ Gets the reader listening carefully for further secret codes!”

Jack Cooper

Jack is the first-prize winner of the second Bloodaxe Archive challenge on Young Poets Network, about White Space. He is the third-prize winner of the Carol Ann Duffy challenge on Young Poets Network, judged by Mari Hughes-Edwards, celebrating Duffy's legacy as Poet Laureate. He is also the third-prize winner in the nonsense poetry challenge, in partnership with Little Angel Theatre, London. Jack is commended in the Bletchley Park challenge, judged by So Mayer; commended in the moon poetry challenge, judged by Nii Parkes; commended again in the Mary Wollstonecraft challenge, written and judged by Bee Rowlatt of the Mary on the Green campaign; commended in the Timothy Corsellis Prize 2019; and commended in August challenge #3 on meta-poetry, written and judged by Foyle Young Poet Danique Bailey in 2019.