nature

Poetry·Clarie Pierce — A rock on the beach narrates what it has witnessed over ages — seagulls, tides, weddings, sunsets — and invites readers to make memories it will keep safe.

Personal Narrative·Dante Chowla-Song — After his grandfather's death, a boy finds solace bird-watching in Central Park, where observing cardinals and hawks helps him accept his grief and stop running from loss.

Story·Evangeline Gustavson — A woman nurtures a mysterious seedling that grows into an extraordinary plant, dies, and leaves offspring; after her death, she reunites with the plant's true spirit—a boy.

Poetry·Mara Occhuizzo — Morning light and wind become a meditation on listening to silence — mountains, birds, voices, and things unheard speak through a bedroom window.

Poetry·Oola Breen-Ryan — A meditation on poetry's elusive nature through metaphors of spiderwebs in sunlight, chaos on paper, and the universe writing, ending with deliberate uncertainty.

Poetry·Julia Xu — A poem observing wildfire from a distance, exploring the paralysis of witnessing destruction while remaining safe on a green mountain.

Story·Lina Yoon — A girl ventures into a frozen forest, falls through river ice where her brother died, and barely survives the journey home through determination and remembered warnings.

Poetry·Ian Maduff — A car journey through an Indiana wind farm becomes a meditation on movement, shadows, and the hypnotic rhythm of spinning turbines.

Poetry·Mirabel Sandler — A poem contrasts natural elements with human infrastructure, calling for a shift in how we see and treat the earth's beauty.

Poetry·Hazel Grace — A stone travels through the world, shrinking from road to boot to child's hand, until it becomes a skipping stone dancing across water.