Comments by judge Elena Karina Byrne: “This dense, strange persona poem, ‘I, Raptor,’ emerges within the language of nature and its almost ancient ‘pith,’ so that the words themselves are as physical as the things they name. This reminds me of the painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s hybrid nature-men representing the seasons or Hieronymus Bosch and the dark ‘conglomerate’ collection of dark images which penetrate the psyche. The final surprise line serves the poem well and startles us into a sudden present tense knowledge.”