Amani Shroff is a junior in high school with a deep passion for poetry. She enjoys using writing as a platform to inspire thought and connection. Her work has been featured in The Telling Room, Weight Journal, and The Nature of Our Times, among others. She won Best of Show for her essay “Our Voice, Our World ” at the 2025 MLK Jr. Step Into the Light Youth Arts Competition organized by the Cow Palace. She is a member of the San Mateo County Youth Commission as well as liaison to the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women. She is also the founder of “A Million Butterflies,” a 501(c)(3) organization and platform for women artisans.
Ecopoem
IN THE GENTLE FLICKER OF LIGHTNING
She laughs, as electricity courses through her veins,
The quiet intensity of North Carolina
dances in the flickering glow,
revealing vast mountains
yet fleeting as shadows.
The Blue Ridge wraps around her,
a whisper and a roar,
as she darts from hill to hill,
lightning-bound,
free in a way she never was—
not in metropolises,
nor in the muted corners of her home.
Here, in the open expanse,
beneath a thundering sky,
beauty lies in what lightning can erase.
The thunder calls her name,
The mountains stretch to hold her,
And she becomes the storm.
This poem first appeared in The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders.
Speak Poetry in San Mateo County 