Underwater*
February 28, 2021
2020 Walk Award
By Qwill Madrone, Grade 6
Alone.
The middle of the ocean.
Wide and scary.
The calm blue surrounds me.
My iridescent tail flashes and circles underwater.
I have nothing to worry about.
I dive under
The silence presses in on me.
I fill my lungs with the salty water of the sea.
Breath in, breath out.
The water evaporates in me
Leaving me with air.
A school of fish dart around me
Little silver bullets.
I use my tail to propel myself
Forward into the water.
I hold my hand out
The silky water flowing around my arm.
A bale of turtles glide under me
Their fins send water towards me
A small underwater current.
The ocean is alive.
And deep.
And blue.
*Copyright 2020 by Qwill Madrone. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.
the basket weaver*
February 14, 2021
2020 Merit Award
By Penelope Keep, Grade 8
behold the basket
gaze upon the careful weave
each piece of cedar bark cut
each wicklike willow strand maneuvered
into its own
the next no different,
not the same
between the folds, each resource glints
giving itself up
being taken in
by the calloused hands who remember
that each tall tree, each abandoned ribbon of sap
creates a bigger, a better, a more beautiful
whole
and the hole, just there, is it also beautiful?
the frustration, the imperfection, the dropped stitch
machines could gloss each one without care,
no thought, no need for a furrowed brow that beads
the racing mind of the man
who sits, surrounded by his own creation
upon the garden he harvests from
*Copyright 2020 by Penelope Keep. Broadside illustrated by Megan Carroll.
Volcanoes of Anger*
February 7, 2021
2020 Merit Award
By Stephen Jacob Huxford, Grade 7
I
Am
Alone
With no one to save me
Walking through the depths of my own soul.
Trudging through swamps of misdoubts,
And hiking the volcanoes of my own anger.
Facing tigers and lions of fear
And seeing my happiness in the sun.
But the sun is so far away and is just a dot.
The dot of happiness in everyone’s soul.
Shrouded by darkness, anger and fear,
All this leads to death.
The death of you and me,
The death of others, and the death of the earth.
*Copyright 2020 by Stephen Jacob Huxford. Broadside illustrated by Kim Wulfestieg.
Outside*
January 3, 2021
Silence*
December 13, 2020
2020 Walk Award
By Chloe Nahani Braunstein, Grade 2
On the pillow in my ear
I can hear my heartbeat.
Silence, for me, is when
I look up at the sky
clouds like big white stars
moving slowly across the wind.
Silence for me is when
the sea has no waves,
birds are not chirping,
dogs lose their bark,
and all humans grow quiet.
Silence means a lot to me.
*Copyright 2020 by Chloe Nahani Braunstein. Broadside illustrated by Kim Wulfestieg.
In the Forest*
November 15, 2020
2020 Merit Award
By Miakoda Baughman, Grade 3
When the Mountain glows
And the River shines
And the trees speak to me
In the forest
There is magic
Everywhere
In the forest
With me
I think the moon is watching
Over me
And the sun shines
With me
In the forest
With me
I think the spirit
Is watching
Over me
*Copyright 2020 by Miakoda Baughman. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.
Jane*
October 13, 2019
2019 Merit Award
By Elliot Stockman, Grade 6
There once was a young girl named Jane,
Who lived in England, and took lots of trains,
She walked on the track,
And with a loud “Thwack!”
She ended up flying to Spain.
In Spain, they all rode on bikes, of course,
But what surprised her was they all spoke in Norse
She wanted a pie,
But she encountered a sigh,
And she ended up eating a horse.
. . . . .
*Copyright 2019 by Elliot Stockman. Broadside illustrated by Christian Anne Smith.
Sky Goes Flying*
September 22, 2019
Hummingbird*
September 15, 2019
2019 Walk Award
By Maddie Patterson, Grade 5
I stroked one finger along its delicate feathered body
It felt like nothing in my hand
allowing me to see its metaphors and similes
scrolled across it like a book of observations
Its neck was laced with bright red sequins
— Oregon grape in distress
Its eyes were little beads,
like tiny huckleberries
Its feet were the leaves,
of a Western red cedar
Its beak was bent,
like the branch of a Douglas fir
Its feathers, metallic flames
Its feathers,
soft scales
of rhody petals
. . . . .
*Copyright 2019 by Maddie Patterson. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.