fear

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — Hope personified as an ambiguous companion who guides the speaker across treacherous terrain while knowing them intimately.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A child's poem transforms an empty mansion into a haunted space through accumulating details of abandonment and decay.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young writer imagines a digital universe with corrupted code 719, where trees shake and reality glitches as everything falls apart.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A surreal encounter at a juggle place leads to accusations of theft and a police litany of the narrator's strange misdeeds throughout the week.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A fierce warning about tigers mixes danger with unexpected tenderness, calling them siblings to baby pebbles and the award of everything.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young poet's urgent plea for environmental action warns that without animals, 'the world is a joke' and challenges readers to reconsider who is truly foolish.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A young poet confronts fear as a physical presence, describing its effects on body and mind before declaring victory through direct combat.

Poetry·Juliet Del Fabbro, age 11 — A young person stands at the edge of a swimming hole, heart racing with summer adrenaline, before finally dropping into the dark blue water below.

Story·Anya Geist, age 13 — A nine-year-old Jewish boy is smuggled from Warsaw to Switzerland inside a curtain during WWII, separated from his family but eventually finding hope through a letter confirming their safety.

Poetry·Naomi Angel Farkas, age 12 — A meditation on feeling trapped by others' expectations transforms into a plea for empathy and a vision of freedom through flight and song.