lyrical prose

Poetry·Gianna Harris, age 9 — A child kneels by the Mississippi River, praying and remembering walks with her mother, feeling freedom in the water's flow and memories on its surface.

Poetry·Kate Choi, age 12 — A morning meditation in an oak tree by a brook, where the listener discovers that silence is filled with nature's whispered wisdom and calls to action.

Poetry·Katy Meta, age 13 — A young poet defends the beauty of a common weed against dismissive judgment, finding enchantment in its velveteen leaves and hidden indigo bud.

Poetry·Griffin Byrne, age 8 — A child addresses a chickadee through lyrical verse, tracing its movement from dawn song through sunset, celebrating the bird's freedom and its lingering presence in memory.

Poetry·Malin Moeller, age 11 — A meditation on how dreams warp time and memory, leaving only fragments and distortions as evidence of the night's passage.

Poetry·McKenzie Steury, age 11 — A girl walking on the beach discovers a baby turtle emerging from the sand and protects it from predators until it reaches the sea.

Poetry·Jem Burch, age 13 — From an airplane window, the world transforms into miniature islands and tinfoil seas, rising through clouds into pure sunlight, chasing sunset into stars.

Story·Hannah Ferreira, age 11 — A girl escapes her stifling bedroom on a summer night to lie in the grass under moonlight, until her mother gently brings her back inside.

Story·Ayla Schultz, age 13 — A girl crosses a desert alone, finds shelter in a mysterious house with an old woman who gives her a glass dragon, then wakes in town unsure if the house...

Poetry·Celie Kreilkamp, age 12 — Rain transforms a city into a sanctuary, wrapping it in gray blankets of mist while thunder and lightning create a world apart from complications.