nature

Poetry·Enni Harlan, age 13 — A father and daughter discover a dead bird at dusk and create an impromptu funeral with autumn leaves, watching as wind carries both leaves and spirit away.

Story·Ananya Nigam, age 13 — A leaf contemplates the community rule that all leaves must eventually fall, resisting until witnessing a tree being cut down transforms fear into understanding.

Elk

Poetry·Cecilia Appel, age 13 — An elk wades through winter snow and calls to the sky, promising that spring will return to transform the frozen landscape.

Poetry·Ella Pierce, age 12 — A paddleboarder experiences heightened awareness of nature's details — jumping fish, water droplets, moonlight — finding beauty in imperfection and rhythm.

Poetry·Ikran Mohamed, age 11 — A young refugee uses nature metaphors to describe feeling different and new at school — a red bird among blue birds, a fish out of water.

Poetry·Alyssa Wu, age 13 — Spring rain nurtures seeds into buds, then plum blossoms that sway with silent beauty in the wind.

Poetry·Graecie Gwyn, age 9 — Rain transforms a landscape as shadows move, sun breaks through, wind flows, and trees lean toward water in a meditation on nature's interconnected movements.

Story·Ever Sun, age 10 — A city girl discovers a magical forest where animals talk and time moves differently, spending what she thinks is a year but is actually ten years researching nature.

Poetry·Amber Zhao, age 10 — A girl contemplates a memorial tree in a park, questioning whether the deceased would have wanted this tribute, then waters the drought-stricken willow and later finds it transformed.

Poetry·Amber Zhao, age 10 — A meditation on Antarctic exploration becomes a reflection on distance between friends, memory's persistence, and how shared experiences diverge in recollection.