connection to nature

Poetry·Rex Huang, age 11 — A nature poem moves through seasons and small dramas — a cat-mouse chase, beavers splashing, a robin's descent — to reveal nature's hidden language.

Poetry·Sevi Ann Stahl, age 10 — A dog named Roo races through a yard in ecstatic motion, turning corners, leaping, and becoming pure joy before skidding to a stop.

Story·Leo Roiphe, age 12 — A boy picking berries transforms into a squirrel and encounters a starving fox, gaining new understanding of nature's harsh realities through their shared moment.

Personal Narrative·Elise Cheung, age 8 — A girl visits Taiwan's Houtong Cat Village, where villagers care for hundreds of stray cats, and forms a special connection with a hungry orange tabby kitten.

Poetry·Autumn E. Weinreich, age 6 — A young child's rhythmic plea to a new cat, asking it to be their companion and dubbing it 'The Tuna Cat' with playful repetition.

Poetry·Grace Zhuang, age 6 — A child catalogs what brings spring to different things — butterflies to flowers, waves to oceans — then finds their own spring in a kite against the sky.

Poetry·Woody Szydlik, age 12 — A young poet contemplates the Continental Divide, finding excitement in the engineering feat and the symbolic boundary between watersheds and oceans.

Poetry·Lily Kasius, age 10 — A poem guides readers through a forest meditation where soil grasps, moss chains, and nature's spirits reveal themselves through sensory immersion.

Story·Lydia Young, age 11 — Four friends venture through Star Forest to save the Tree of Life from the Eternal Cloud of Doom, discovering Mother Nature needs help protecting the environment.

Personal Narrative·Caden Wang, age 12 — Four brief meditations capture moments in different outdoor spaces — a forest path, tennis court, porch, and window view — through precise sensory observation.