Today, recalling the victims of fires in Portugal in 2017 and the actual fires in California, a photograph and the winning poem of the 2020-2021 International Nature Literature Competition are shared.

“A PRIMAL COLLOQUY” by Joseph (USA)

Resplendent in red,

      was he.

More modest,

      was she.

Wing to wing

      they stood on

the telephone wire,

      in seamless synchronization,

against a putty-gray sky,

      populated with

hurrying yellow

      and orange clouds,

thick and heavy as

      wet paint; a gusting wind

heralding the approaching

      deluge.

Heads, turning rapidly and

      sharply, speaking

their language of love

      and necessity,

while standing on the

      words, grasping at

the conversations of a different

      species;

both long-ago evolved    

      from a universal

common ancestor —

      as Darwin believed.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Green clippings, by Rui M.

One night I photographed leaves in the skies ...

Black sailboats, cut out of moonlight

and I evaporated in that cold,

of backlight, immensity and proximity.

I felt like I wasn't already there,

but in the firmament, far away ...

Heat breath exhales ...

In the lens of the camera I held her during a moment,

but she is there, eternalized for those who want to see her;

the Tree lends the branches, I the hands,

God the light, the moon seduces us,

and us, the others: the illusion, which paints with magic,

this life, that, one day, was born in us.

Enjoy.