silence

Poetry·Holly Jane Doyle — A walk through winter woods reveals tiny mushrooms listening to every sound — from robins hopping to rooks cawing to human footsteps.

Poetry·Satya Villacorta — A rock on a cliff observes the forest through a day, finding richness in stillness as the world below bustles on.

Poetry·Daniel Shorten — A clock contemplates its endless mechanical existence, questioning why humans created it to mark time in perpetual, lonely repetition.

Poetry·Enni Harlan — A kindergartner with selective mutism finds her voice when seated next to a girl with a butterfly-decorated lunchbox, capturing the moment connection breaks through silence.

Poetry·Emily Yen, age 11 — A young writer captures the moment of creative paralysis before inspiration strikes, celebrating words as 'lines of grace' that bring thought to life.

Poetry·Woody Szydlik, age 12 — A meditation on escaping into TV shows versus facing the messy reality of life, ending with the speaker choosing to walk into 'fresh, impure air.'

Poetry·Jake Sun, age 9 — A philosophical meditation on the concept of nothing — its paradoxical presence in absence, its role in thought and space, and its unexpected value in our lives.

Poetry·Julia Marcus, age 13 — A clock hanging on the wall in the middle of the night ticks steadily through darkness, lonely without anyone awake to ask the time.

Poetry·Alyssa Wu, age 13 — A pantoum explores the isolation of depression when others dismiss your pain, repeating lines that circle like the thoughts they describe.

Poetry·Adele Stamenov, age 10 — A moment of anxiety dissolves into calm through the ritual of making tea, where milk clouds float in their own suspended world.