nature

Oak

Poetry·Graham TerBeek, age 10 — An oak tree discovers purpose through seasons of loss and renewal, finding meaning not in being special but in providing shade, shelter, and friendship.

Air

Poetry·Julia Marcus, age 13 — A hiker rises above civilization to Lake Alpine, becoming one with the hawk soaring overhead, breathing pine and sage and thin mountain air.

Personal Narrative·Lara Fraenkel, age 11 — A girl traces her evolving understanding of clouds from childhood fantasies of cotton candy and fairies to learning the water cycle in school, finding wonder in scientific truth.

Poetry·Summer Loh, age 8 — Through a fogged window, a child observes city life: a girl with her dog, a street musician, an old couple, and a flower growing through concrete cracks.

Poetry·Benjamin Ding, age 9 — Thirteen playful poems explore opposites, paradoxes, wordplay, and environmental concerns through a child's inventive lens, ending with a critique of materialism versus nature.

Poetry·Summer Loh, age 8 — A child observes a yellow woodpecker pecking at a tree, wonders about its purpose, then watches it glide away like a paper airplane.

Poetry·Summer Loh, age 8 — A child observes a tree on the lawn, noting the birds, squirrels, rustling leaves, floating bark, and a flower bud waiting to bloom.

Poetry·Summer Loh, age 8 — A child's observational poem captures an evening landscape where sea meets shore, birds hunt, stars emerge, and a hen settles into her nest.

Poetry·Rainer Pasca, age 14 — A surreal moment in a forest where the speaker's mind becomes a predatory creature that devours a bird without greeting or ceremony.

Story·Karen Susanto, age 13 — A fox drinking at a forest pond narrowly escapes a stone thrown by humans, whose intrusion shatters the peaceful sanctuary.