seeing beauty in the ordinary

Story·Hannah Mayerfield, age 10 — A reincarnated blue jay, now human, returns to a fountain where they once drank as a bird, mourning lost flight until moonlight brings new hope.

Poetry·Rainer Pasca, age 9 — A nine-year-old observes a river scene at an arboretum, recording nature's details while a speedboat disrupts the peaceful meditation of water, birds, and trees.

Z

Story·Ayla Schultz, age 12 — A lonely rich girl befriends a mysterious park dweller named Z, discovering a hidden community that gathers at night, but Z vanishes with spring's arrival.

Poetry·Sylvia Gibson, age 13 — A teenager contemplating suicide finds reasons to live in small miracles like birds taking flight and children's first steps, offering her words as a gift.

Story·Evelyn Chen, age 13 — A teen reluctantly agrees to teach piano to her blind neighbor, confronting her own prejudices when the girl calls her out for treating her differently because of her disability.

Poetry·Gabrielle Mott, age 8 — Peace arrives like moonlight through a window, then expands into visions of mountain streams, glass-still pools, and fields where doves coo sweetly.

Poetry·Wujun Ke, age 13 — Dawn breaks through trees as birds find their perches, while the speaker breathes in the ancient scents of maple and oak between dreams and waking.

Poetry·Alyssa Cho — Dawn breaks through trees as birds find their perches, while the speaker breathes in the ancient scents of maple and oak between dreams and waking.

Story·Katie Woodward, age 12 — In 1957 Ohio, a lonely girl befriends an elderly Cherokee boarder who brings the first snow in twenty years and teaches her that she is loved.

Poetry·Dylan Geiger, age 11 — A winter walk with a dog reveals a landscape of leafless trees, frosted cows, squirrels with stored acorns, and snow drifts punctuated by passing trucks.