connection to nature

Poetry·Olivia Wang, age 10 — A sonnet celebrating nature's cycles through sensory images of water, wildlife, and seasonal changes, from sunset to sunrise, rain to bloom.

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.

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·Soheon Rhee, age 12 — Precise instructions for cleaning a hallway become a meditation on observation, revealing the quiet dignity in routine work and moments of beauty glimpsed through windows.

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.

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.

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.