Rachel Eliza Griffiths, our guest judge, is a poet & novelist whose work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Tin House, among others.
This competition has ended. You can view upcoming competitions or check out who won below for future inspiration!
Overview
Who’s Eligible: Young Writers (13-19)
Piece Length: 50-500 words
This month, take a few moments to step outside. Examine how the leaves strain against the wind, focus your attention on the ant moving a grain of sand, or consider the grass sprouting from the pavement cracks. Once you’ve regarded the intricacy of the natural world around you, write an original poem about what you know and love from the natural world. You may choose to write about change (like how the forested lot next door is now a parking lot), worries (like the oil sheen in the rain barrel), or celebrations (like the melody of cowbells on a breezy day).
**PRIZES**
Winner will receive $100. Runner-Up and Best Peer Review will each receive $50.
Competition Entries
Log in to see how other young writers from around the world have responded to the competition prompt!
Be God. Step way back for a second. Imagine this folded earth as bed sheets dropped in heaps onto the floor. Now stick a steep winter light off to the east. Call this a landscape. Tall shadows form across the peaks and troughs. Look closer—hard mineral waters flow across rocks and roots, through duff and brambles. Watch all the forks of the rivers, sloughs, and creeks empty in the bay, and the bay into the ocean whose gray voice all things must answ...
What impression does this poem make on you, as a whole? What feeling are you left with at the end?
This is by far the most enjoyable poem I have read among submissions to the Nature Poetry Competition 2025. From the beginning, the author captures the audience's attention with an instantly amusing title* that both alludes to Harper Lee's novel (perhaps) and gives readers a sense of what to expect in the rest of the poem. The tone of the piece is consistently humorous. There are multiple instances of juxtaposition and auditory imagery. While many poems with en...
How the Forest Speaks
Reviewed by: Emmi_B (Australia) Runner Up
Jan 12, 2025
What impression does this poem make on you, as a whole? What feeling are you left with at the end?
Hi, Grey! Great job on this poem! I'm so excited to review it. :)
In this poem, I think you've beautifully captured the feeling of longing for the 'trees behind'. I'm also more of a forest girl myself, so I can certainly relate to that.
Reading through this poem builds a beautiful picture in my mind's eye of standing in a forest, and just being, around all the wonderful sounds, smells, colours that the forest might have to offer.
This is by far the most enjoyable poem I have read among submissions to the Nature Poetry Competition 2025. From the beginning, the author captures the audience's attention with an instantly amusing title* that both alludes to Harper Lee's novel (perhaps) and gives readers a sense of what to expect in the rest of the poem. The tone of the piece is consistently humorous. There are multiple instances of juxtaposition and auditory imagery. While many poems with en...
Once, in the house with glass candles in every window,
my grandfather told me of his father while we let our gaze drift on soft wings outside,
kitchen superimposed golden over the darkening fields....
immemorial, they have watched the sky
for centuries;
strange humpbacked creatures...
Be God. Step way back for a second. Imagine this folded earth as bed sheets dropped in heaps onto the floor. Now stick a steep winter light off to the east. Call this a landscape. Tall shadows form across the peaks and troughs. Look closer—hard mineral waters flow across rocks and roots, through duff and brambles. Watch all the forks of the rivers, sloughs, and creeks empty in the bay, and the bay into the ocean whose gray voice all things must answ...
The drumbeats begin against the windows,
opening bars of what will be known to be a grand symphony.
Splitting through the classroom's silence...
As I'm headed out the door,
In a rush and as absent as can be,
Something stops me in my tracks,...
When the shell of what was splits clean, it does so quietly,
