from River Heron Poetry Prize final judge, Shankar Narayan:
”This beautifully written poem, with its subtle and not-so-subtle ecopoetic currents binding us to one another, to other beings, and to the planet, had me on the first read.  Moving between micro and macro, the flow of water infuses the poem’s lyric voice, lending energy to the whole.  I love the question/claim of water remembering—and the ultimate answer that the water is us, and everything around us.  Combining tributaries of ideas common to spiritual seekers and stewards of the environment the world over (including, for example, diverse indigenous communities), the poem literally makes us one with the world around us, finding the self in all things.  At a time when water and forest resources are wantonly squandered, the heart of this poem could not be more timely.”

Jessica Cohn’s poems appear in Comstock Review, Crab Creek Review, Tar River Poetry, and The Journal of Undiscovered Poets; at Rattle, RavensPerch, Slab, Sleet, Spillway, Split Rock Review, What Rough Beast, and elsewhere. Born in Michigan, she lives now in California. Cohn spent decades writing nonfiction but felt the need to pivot. She is grateful to the editors and judge for this honor.