self-awareness

Poetry·Sierra Elman — A moment of solitude in the shower becomes a meditation on breath, heartbeat, and the harmony between body and rain.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 10 — A child observes others who seem to contain multitudes while affirming her own singular self—one soul, one mind, one heart against the night's thousand stars.

Poetry·Juliet Del Fabbro, age 11 — A young person resists the world's morning energy, finding comfort instead in rain sounds and the warm cave of bed on a Saturday.

Poetry·Emilei Lu, age 11 — A young writer describes preparing for the journey into imagination like bundling up for winter, knowing she might not find her way back.

Story·Neva Pederson, age 13 — A girl picks a fight with her sister over blanket distribution, ignores her conscience, loses the argument she started, and learns to listen to that small inner voice.

Poetry·Sonja Skye Wooley, age 12 — A midnight journey from bed to kitchen for milk captures the disorienting sensory details of being awake at 3:30 A.M.

Poetry·Misha Kydd, age 12 — A reader finds refuge in a library chair by the window, where fictional battles of knights and dragons prove easier to face than real-world problems.

Story·Aviva Leshaw, age 13 — A girl arrives home from school to an empty house and contemplates how the world continues moving while she stands still in her quiet kitchen.