the reaching light has tethered us,
in the knowing space weathering darkness.
A square screen blinking like a white oyster,
turning on the sea bed in her silver flecks.
Darkness has openings, the black and then visible sequence.
The phone has a timed orbit, your gaze is recorded,
in small font, time gathers her senses, opens our eyes
and sleepy heads to the large and once dark expanses of mystery,
if you are reading this then you exist
and for just a second we have reached
night without emptiness— is part of her Response Poetry dialogue with Chinese poet Ma Yongbo 马永波 for International Times
night without emptiness by Helen Pletts | Garden Lavender Poetry Reed Diffuser
Helen Pletts is a British poet based in Cambridge. She is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo. He is her official Chinese translator. She is a committee member of CB1 Poetry. Her work is translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian, Romanian and Spanish. Helen and Ma Yongbo are joint creators of the Volumes of the ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip - Summer Tour 2025’, for International Times.IT.
Her poetry has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022), a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019), a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022), 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
