hope

Poetry·Bryson Mendolera — Sand becomes an eagle flying across the desert, forming mountains and ripples, until drought-stricken cacti are blessed by sudden rain.

Poetry·Kashvi Bhatia — A child wakes to discover winter giving way to spring through a single warm breeze carrying the promise of flowers, rain, and returning life.

Poetry·Nova Macknik-Conde — During a car ride to a new home, a child imagines creating an elaborate roof garden filled with flowers, vegetables, and herbs.

Poetry·Mia Ella Antonio — At dawn, a girl waits at the village edge for her father's return, watching fog roll over the hills until she finally spots him arriving with his donkey.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 10 — A young poet explores cosmic scale through parallel structures, contrasting the singular (one mind, one world) with the multiple (thousand eyes, thousand hearts).

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 10 — A young poet stands with open hands, waiting to receive rain, life, and all the world's green until only she remains in eternal readiness.

Poetry·Necla Asveren, age 12 — After humanity reaches for the stars and drowns in riches, survivors emerge from bunkers to find a transformed world with golden moons and purple grass.

Poetry·Avery DiBella, age 10 — Snow falls like a skydiver, melts like ice cream, disappears like a sad song, but promises to return in winter.

Poetry·Gideon Rose, age 9 — A man without food or water, beaten and robbed, continues to think only of love—revealed to be the poet's own experience.

Poetry·Parwana Amiri, age 16 — A refugee teen's defiant catalog of what takes courage — building schools, welcoming the homeless, staying human — versus what's easy: destroying, hurting, closing your eyes.