For the 2024-25 school year:
Poets in our schools, thank you for your hard work and thoughtful mentorship with our students. Visiting poets to the classrooms this year were Samar Abulhassan, Subhaga Crystal Bacon, Jessica Gigot, Danielle Hayden, Lorraine Healy, David Lasky, Sati Mookherjee, Jeffrey Morgan, and Caitlin Scarano.
Our Partner School Districts: Anacortes, Burlington-Edison, Concrete, La Conner, Mount Vernon, Oak Harbor, and Sedro-Woolley. We also partnered with Skagit Valley College – Mount Vernon Campus.
A BIG SHOUT OUT to our Poets in Schools Coordinator, Genny Bisagna, for all your hard work in orchestrating the placement of poets in our schools around the area!
To see more work from last year, view our 2023-24 student poetry anthology.
© 2025 Skagit River Poetry Foundation
All rights revert to individual authors upon publication.
These are just a few highlights from student poetry for the 2024-25 school year!
Congratulations to all our students! You shine and inspire us every single day!
Animal Weather
2nd Grade
| Sunshine is
A red panda sleeping On a tree branch. -Kourtney |
Sunshine is
A light fox Sitting still. -Jade |
| Sunshine is a shiny dog
Making sunlight. -Vidalia |
The sunshine is reflecting off of the lion.
-Roman |
| Sunshine is a unicorn saying hi
To God in Heaven. -Cooper |
Rain is a hamster
Running on a wheel. -Lucas |
| The rain ran
Like a cat. -Kinley |
Rain is an angel crying.
-Alejandra |
| A cloud is a fox
Jumping on a building. -Lucas |
A rain cloud is
A fox break dancing In the bad rain storm. -Kourtney |
| Wind is a cheetah
Running in grass. -Milah |
Lava is like a fox
Because of its orange coat of fur. -Hudson |
What is Louder?
2nd Grade
| What is louder?
A siren Or a lawnmower? -Lucas |
What is louder?
A cow Or a lion? -Lylyana |
| What is louder?
My mom screaming from a spider Or my cat being greedy and eating all of her food? -Hudson |
What is louder?
CaseOh making an earthquake Or a hippo farting? -Tidus |
| What is louder?
Hudson’s mom screaming when she sees a spider Or me screaming when I see a spider? -Cooper |
What is louder?
A dog barking at my mom Or when I scream for ice cream? -Alejandra |
| What is louder?
A car starting Or a Taylor Swift concert? -Maria |
What is louder?
An ocean Or a house? -Samantha |
The moon is like a grave
The woods is like a dark scary night
Rustling sound like a bear following the step
you have taken all night
Grace Bowman
5th Grade
Finding Patience
There is patience in a tree where you can hear every leaf fall but can do nothing to it
There is patience in an envelope sitting alone in a mailbox watching nothingness float by
There is patience in wings fluttering up and down so smoothly it is masked by the wind
There is patience in a house the way the notebooks, lamp, and river stay till the silence in the old house alone on its pillars crumbles
Nash Walker
4th/5th grade
Postcard from Washington Park beach
Waves crash on the beach like bulls charging at a red cape.
Algae swimming in the currents of the salty waters.
The sands get soaked as rain downpours on the beach.
The small sounds of pittering sandpiper feet on the ground as they scan the sands for clams. Trees sway and dance while umbrellas open up all over the beach.
Dogs leap into the water like a spring releasing from being contained in a coil.
As the rain clears, the beach goes into cheers that get engulfed by the sound of waves crashing from the ocean once more.
Andy York
4th/5th grade
I Dream of Flying
Sometimes in the blankets of home, I feel that I drift off to a world unknown.
Sometimes I dream of a place up high, of starry nights and endless skies.
When I dream, I dream to fly, to soar endless until the day I die.
I wish to fly with wings or not, either one fills the slot.
Playing outside, I stare at the birds, ensuring the fact that I am at a loss for words.
If only I could feel how they did, traversing the air since they’ve been kids.
If I would be able to leave the ground, there would be no limits to which I am bound.
I would see the sky, feel the wind, a winding fantasy of which I cannot begin.
So every time I dream, it always seems like words unknown to me.
A feeling that I cannot describe is that feeling for which I strive.
It may be destiny, it may be but when I wish to fly I feel nobody can relate to me.
I have no wings on which to try, so I can only dream to fly.
Mya Utigard
8th Grade
Dad’s Chile
I still remember all the autumn
evenings, my father in the yard.
the smell of chilli steeping
in the window filling up the
halls.
the steeping broth and roasting beans
crackled and popped. Every Fall
just before Halloween he made it
in his pot
my dad spent hours cooking,
stirring and pouring over a charcoal fire.
come evening in our home we would eat,
a chilly so soft and filled with flavor.
the small spice enough to leave a sting.
So much flavor for hours it would linger.
the tiny pop from the beans. an unforgettable
savor.
Elaina Taylor, high school
Nature Love:
Long sandy beach. Rippling waves.
Calm, windy breeze. Musky haze.
Silent nights. Wrapped in the stars.
A campfire and tent. No sight of cars.
My soul is calm, and my mind is at peace.
Surrounded by the things I love most.
No jobs or tasks, my worries at the least
I pack all my bags and head for the coast.
Emily Hammond, high school
“On this field”
My Grandfather and I would visit this field
Hide and seek beneath the trees
Blackberry bushes taller than it seems
On this field I am 7 and I will always be 7.
I look for you behind flower pots and seats
In the grass and up in the leaves
I begin to worry, tears threatening my eyes
Before I break, there you rise
An older familiar face
And my worries wash away.
With you, I know I’m safe
I visit this field again
I don’t know when I got taller
I look down on the bushes now,
The blackberries are ripe,
And I try not to cry.
I stand where I once stood before,
A little stronger,
And I’m sure you’d say I look just like my mother
I take a step
Then another
The wind brushes my hair
And I smile
knowing you’re there
On this field I am 15,
but I will always be 7.
Kyla Edmonston, high school
Phở
One day once a year,
we gather around the table.
One day once a year,
we gather all the meat.
Once day once a year,
we gather all the mead.
Stir, stir, sitr,
We hear the pot hiss.
Stir, stir, stir,
I listen to the wisp.
They tell me forsaken journeys.
Down the plain of Vietnam,
To the roads of Wyoming.
Down the land of Washington,
to the pot before me.
Samuel Merrill, high school
Carving Peace
No structure. Just emotion. Just truth.
I wasn’t handed peace–
I have to carve it out of chaos.
I held silence like armor,
Learned early that the world doesn’t wait
For kids to catch up.
People left.
Pain stayed.
But I stayed too.
Even when my voice shook,
Even when no one’s clapping for you.
I Rose–
Not loud.
Not pretty.
But real.
And real never fades.
Seth Ruiz, high school
I Am From
I am from the crickets midnight chats
I am from the week-long roar of typhoons
I am from the scent of cedar
I am from the muddy marshland of rice paddies
I am from the waves crashing on the seawall
I am from the excitement of knocking at my friends door at 8 AM
I am from long lines of jets during flight training
I am from the excitement of finding a cool fish while snorkeling
I am from the scent of sea salt while playing on the beach
Felix Bassart, 4th/5th Grade
Courage
There is Courage in a leaf
How it refuses to let go and drift away in the wind
There is Courage in a flower
taking a risk and pushing out of the warm soil to face the world
There is Courage in a door
standing there and blocking out the force of the elements
Jasmine Watters, 4th/5th Grade
Comic Haikus
window framed in dusk
she sings to the silent stars
waves of golden locks
Isla, middle school
The Dragonfly Soars
above the glimmering lake
slow and elegant
Alexis Burks, middle school
Leaves fall less
Color shows more
Flowers start to bloom
Kamyla, middle school
Gavin, 8th grade
Kieran, 8th grade