The 2025 Brilliant Poetry Competition Shortlisted Poems: Marie Vibbert
Brilliant Poetry is an international competition that invites participants from around the world every year to explore scientific discoveries and curiosity through poetic expression.
Aligned with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), marking a century since the formulation of quantum mechanics, Brilliant Poetry aims this year to highlight the power of artistic expression, making the complexities of science accessible, beautiful, and profoundly inspiring.
During the call for participants, poets were encouraged to engage with the principles and paradoxes of quantum science, exploring their intellectual and human significance.
After closing the submissions on July 30, the jury started the selection process. In September, ten outstanding poems were selected for a shortlist that was announced early this month.
We are thrilled to publish each of them on the official blog of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Winners of the first, second, and third places will be announced on November 10.
A New Grammar for Atlantis
by Marie Vibbert
…broken lengthwise
We are
Quality entangled (with/by/for) [name]
& the discarded —
[milquetoast/moderate] (strike it and say “kind”)
We the artificial can unprevent
In a single day and night of
>> overwrite: inexorable seep of complacency,
the [great/cruel] citystate of America was [error 404].
Incorrigible, titanic garbage mat
[lumbering / slouching] toward [dis]freedom!
Ope! No harm meant
Like swollen-bellied mosquitos [we / they]
thirst until all is [undefined]
& gate no mercy
We need new grammars
for {
our trembling futility;
our rage;
}
or [we/you] may snap,
a plastic spoon…
Marie Vibbert is a computer programmer from a working-class background in Cleveland, Ohio. She has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for her fiction.Â
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