seeing beauty in the ordinary

Poetry·Genevieve Gray Fink, age 9 — A drive with grandmother from countryside to town traces the fading of a mauve sunrise and warm breeze into cold morning and indifferent crowds.

Story·Catherine Chung, age 12 — A young traveler boards a Beijing-to-Shenzhen train, befriends a three-year-old girl named Yang Han, sketches her portrait, and reflects on connection across the journey.

Poetry·McKenzie Steury, age 11 — A girl walking on the beach discovers a baby turtle emerging from the sand and protects it from predators until it reaches the sea.

Poetry·Jinny Min, age 11 — A summer beach day builds from hot sand and waves to the moment of witnessing a spectacular sunset that leaves the observer speechless.

Story·Jem Burch, age 13 — A family drives through Los Angeles on the Fourth of July, discovering multiple firework shows from the freeway and finally seeing the entire city lit up with distant explosions.

Poetry·Jem Burch, age 13 — From an airplane window, the world transforms into miniature islands and tinfoil seas, rising through clouds into pure sunlight, chasing sunset into stars.

Poetry·Jude Stumpf, age 8 — A child connects Van Gogh's Starry Night to moments with parents—dad at the museum, mom watching them draw—finding calm in the painting above their bed.

Poetry·Abigail Rose Cargo, age 13 — A boat being pulled from water becomes a meditation on the narrow margins between opposing forces—connection and separation, life and death.

Poetry·Celie Kreilkamp, age 12 — Rain transforms a city into a sanctuary, wrapping it in gray blankets of mist while thunder and lightning create a world apart from complications.

Poetry·Celie Kreilkamp, age 12 — Rain transforms a small city into a sanctuary, wrapping it in gray blankets of mist while revealing simple beauties in puddles and lightning.