Congratulations Entrants
First Place
Aditya Vivek Thota, Tamil Nadu, India
Untitled
In my journey through the space wreck
spread across a trillion parsecs,
I faintly feel your presence
as I explore in quiescence,
this never ending universe
I foresee a resplendent entity,
something of an unknown identity
been searching through the eons,
in the plasma, in the ions no,
not a neutron, not a boson.
and I did finally find you
at the heart of a dying star,
my entangled photon
Second Place
Anushka Raheja, Delhi, India
An ode to Cassini Huygens
You fell into Saturn's gravity a year ago,
Twin wings of smoke lingering in your wake.
When I think of the signal that once was aglow
My heart and soul overflow with a peculiar ache.
You wandered the cosmos for two decades
A vagrant fashioned out of machinery and metal.
In the interstellar solitaire, you were the ace of spades
There was a thirst for information you seemed to settle.
Your voyage brimmed with revolutionary breakthroughs;
Transcending unchartered celestial borders.
With the planets, you had an unparalleled rendezvous.
For an epoch, you dutifully executed your orders.
As you uncovered Enceladus's swirling jets,
The astronomical community was spellbound.
You captured mosaics of Titan's assets,
The holy grail of your existence was to astound.
They say your own discoveries led to your demise,
Your triumphs paving the way to your destruction.
Your nuclear heart was a curse in disguise,
To your mission, it was an unforgivable obstruction.
You careened into Saturn's rings, and melted without a trace.
In a century, your only relic will be a footnote in history;
The paths you once traversed, another orbiter will traipse
And your remnants will be eternally encased in rings of mystery.
Your plummet marked the end of an insanely beautiful jaunt,
And the beginning of a tale that humanity will tell for generations.
Of a hunk of metal which persevered without daunt
And managed to be miraculous by exceeding all expectations.
Third Place
Christina Sng, Singapore
Untitled
An eternal divide
between sea and sky
the gravity of existence.
Honorable Mention
Meg Freer, Ontario, Canada
Night, Fugitive
Night’s language has no days,
only the sun’s return.
Time suspends us.
Ravel cut star shapes into his
shutters, revered the dark sky
during daylight hours.
On the outermost Cape Cod dunes,
Beston wrote layers of night
away from others’ eyes.
Feelings roam freely,
leave faint traces of longing
under dim light of stars and fireflies.
Honorable Mention
Ingrid Bruck, Pennsylvania, USA
Frost Moon
Standing on the pavilion, I wait for full moon to rise. Super sized, he leaps out of the water bigger than a giant whale. His wife under the sea waves, bids him fare journey and dives, her streaming trail of silver tresses illuminates the ocean. I leave the shore for home, my friend frost moon travels with me.
who says night is quiet
has never stayed at Stella Maris House where the ocean talks to moon and stars,
you hear them through the open window
crickets chirp in sea grass waves whisper roll and break as water sieves through sand
spume songs calm and lull you
early one morning not whomp nor whisper of surf you wake to unnatural quiet
ocean silence shouts
in the inky room you get out of bed walk blind to the window
draw back the curtain
mute drizzle sounds on the roof the sea swallows light rain taps a black velvet so deep it stops at the pane
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