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Lake
by Claudia Lapp
1st Place

It can be this good,
life on our green planet:
give us a lake of silken waters, spring-fed.
Drop in people of all fleshy shapes, colors and ages,
speaking many languages, side by side.
Let the water be various shades of jade green
with tiny fishes to edge between toes.
Let the orange life guard's banner float on the clean breeze,
Let each cloud caravan move across perfect sky,
each leaf respond to each strand of summer breeze,
each ant and dandelion dance its part in harmony.
And if there be disharmony,
let it be forgotten, here and now,
by Irish and Anglo, Arab and Jew, Black and White.
Let the AK automatics of hate drop from bruised shoulders.
If there be heartache, let the winds carry it away, here and now,
and if it remain, let it find its source and be healed.
If there be weariness of old age, let the waters smooth it.
Let the waters smooth us all to rounded green pebbles, serene.

If peace were our greatest industry,
harmony our best-selling product,
and no one unemployed in its pursuit,
this scene would be as common as chicory flowers in June
as we soaked in solar pleasure and
the simple beauty of humans in harmony
at the jade green lake.

The Body Politic of Peace
by Gayle Brandeis
Honorable Mention

Listen.
The body is not
a battleground,
as some people
would like you
to believe.
The body knows
peace; peace, after
all, is the body's
natural state.
Think of the body
in repose, the way
muscles loosen,
breath opens up;
think of the body
in love. It knows
what to do. It is
our mind that does
not. It is our mind
that makes us feel
separate, isolated,
it is our mind
that dreams up war.
The body says no,
come back to me,
I am fragile and strong
and I connect you
to your brothers and sisters.
I connect you to the earth.
Come back to the heartbeat,
the pulse, the rhythm
we all walk to, regardless
of nation or color. Come back
to the breath--inhale, take the world
deep into your lungs; exhale,
give yourself back fully.
This is what the body says:
release the peace
that lives within your skin.

On Allard St.
by Bear Jack Gebhardt
Honorable Mention

In the night in the quiet after love
we are disarmed--at peace with each other.

Our moment there envelopes the armed earth,
settling into silos where missiles wait,
fogging radar screens, muddling generals' minds
bringing drowsiness to soldiers on watch.

What we do in our private lives does count.
Who we are, what we love, how we make peace
one by one, two by two, three by three...ahh,
the peace of the world is built in this way.

Your openness to me--trusting, eager,
vulnerable--makes our lusty union whole.
Missiles are rusted by our moist love words.
Your giggles jam the guns of combatants.
This softness between us in our day life
melts the metal helmets the soldiers wear.

Our relationship infiltrates war rooms.
Our balance love helps makes the decision
against mobilization. Last night's love---
no need today for retaliation.

We begin here: first each with our own peace,
then together, one and one making two,
and from here, then, the world must bend to us
as surely as dawn bends to the night, lifts,
her veil to reveal the light, new day...

The first disarmament is that between us.
From here, from this room on Allard Street,
the world is set at peace.

The Sound of Peace
by Roselyn Crewse
Honorable Mention

Peace comes without a warning quietly
As a whisper, softly as a kiss
Brushed against a cheek

War announces itself at the top of its lungs
Breathing fire, how can Mankind survive the need

For power and land without brandishing weapons or
Threats of nuclear war?

Such power frightens everyone except
The foolish and the greedy

Someone will always play the game
Without rules, without conscience, without regard
To the consequences

We must each try to find peace at least
Within ourselves, pray that evil will not triumph, while
Time and sanity brings a quiet peace

On tiptoe so as not to disturb the
Sleeping beast we weave our way around the
Specter of war, the devil's feast

There we may find hidden from view
The treasure we call peace

Peacemaker
by Debbie W. Parvi
Honorable Mention

She never lit a candle in a vigil.
She never raised a voice for human rights.
She slept on public benches in the summer--
In basements shelters on cold, winter nights.

She never held a sign and demonstrated.
She moved no one to action with her words,
But in the park each day, by roaring traffic,
She knelt to share her bread crumbs with the birds.

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A Moment of Faith
by Musha Hove
1st Place

a dragonfly floated alone
in the center of a pool
dancing lifelessly among
ripple shadows.
it gently collided with the rope
that divides shallow end from deep
and tried to pull itself from the water

wings are too heavy.

In the deep end, an autistic boy named David lay down on the end of the diving board. On any other day, the children behind him would have screamed their impatience, and he would have stood dumbly until his mother pried him away. He had not touched the water all summer.

It was the first day of fall, the pool was empty, and David gazed at the turquoise below in silence. After what must have seemed like hours in a world where his impulses were rational, his mumbling coherent, David rose with a strange smile on his face, sighed the sigh of angels and
went
limp
unto
the
water.

three waves expanded from a ring around the boy,
faded to the shallow end,
and consecutively drove the dragonfly on top of the rope,
high above the water's reach.
David swam to his father's arms,
the dragonfly sputtered its wings and flew away,
and for a second
I believed.

Peace Defined
by Heather Turner
Honorable Mention

Peace is...
a Christmas stocking
a heart shaped Valentine
fishing on a quiet lake
hunting four leaf clovers
a red rose
walking a dog
a sunset
planting a tree
LADYBUGS!
sheets airing on a clothesline
construction paper
bread rising
the sweet smell after a summer rain
a jack-o-lantern
stamp collecting
birthday cake with lots of frosting
eating POPcorn
sleeping in
Peace is not a destination we reach
but rather
the brief moments
of JOY
we discover along the way.

That Day
by Ramona Baca-Hodroff
Honorable Mention

I.
How could one
Be glum
Looking at trees?
Though their leafy arrows
may point, green to the ground.

There is something tranquil in chlorophyll.
It is a drug.
It ought to be banned
In un-peaceful land.

II.
Through the heat of melted sidewalks,

And babies squealing like eagles,
Still green fire
Reaches up to Heaven.
Ever reaching,
Never losing faith
In the blue linen.

And for that reason
Their faith preserves them
Like honey over mushrooms,
Hundreds of years
Till they die
And reach their sky.

Clouds
by Kristin Traicoff
Honorable Mention

And now the day is over and
the clouds melt into my mosque cielinged sky.
They seem to shroud the sunset,
shroud the winking stars,
shroud the infinite shadows of the pines
calling to much attention
to themselves.
( but you know that
in their divinity they create the entrance to the sun
you know that
all that is noble and all that is simple converge within them
you know that
tears of poets condense to form their liquid
you know that
they are peace -- flowing flying freely
unaware of their depth
simply existing in the cool of the night and day
hovering above the earth like the breath of seraphim
and finally slipping onto our skin in ancient and honest drops
which do not seize but drip softly around the soul )
Welcome to the universe,
Kindly step off the earth into the clouds.

Signs of peace?
by Jess Segal
Honorable Mention

he
told me to
write a poem
in the shape of a
peace sign. I said
he was crazy. i'm good,
but i'm not that good.
but, heck, it can't hurt
to try. mama always
said I could do what-
ever I wanted. I just
wish I had a clue
as to what that could
be. y'know, maybe
i'll be a mango today.

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Feel the Feeling
by Alison Trabucco
1st Place

Feel the feeling of flying with a butterfly and all
it's beauty.
Feel the feeling of whispering to a ladybug or
singing with a sparrow.
Feel the feeling of sitting and watching an
orange and purple sunset with a dark shadow
of a bird as dark as a pencil's gray streak,
swirling with freedom across the sunset.
Feel the feeling of a parrot's squawk,
a mouse's squeal,
a bird's song,
a fish's swish
and a human's love.
Feel the feeling of peace.

The Peaceful City
by Seth Bowman
Honorable Mention

The peaceful city was by a river,
The river was by the ocean,
The city had a church,
The church was very peaceful,
There was a cemetery,
The cemetery was quiet,
It was so quiet it would scare you,
The ocean had a salty smell,
The best part of the city was
the sound of the stream moving
so swiftly.

Sunflower
by Evanne Wilson
Honorable Mention

A beautiful bright
lion's mane blowing
in the wind shaking
his head, it is whispering
to all the creatures. A
pansy, a parrot squawking
in a forever tune, a rose blood spilling from
another one's prey. A gardenia, a white
tiger roar to the beat of
the wind. Graceful poppies,
the antelope running
in the whispering grass
but the sunflower, the lion
standing tall and proud
above them all, clearly
the ruler of all flowers.

My World
by Keegan Foster
Honorable Mention

My world is a peaceful world a
world without fighting a world with
happiness. No nuclear wars no poverty
or muggings or gangs who kill over nothing
where no one is hated
or feared where animals can
live in a rain forest without
worrying about their homes getting
destroyed for lumber My world
is a peaceful world where
a kid falls asleep without even
thinking about bad things where
a kid could walk to the park alone
without worrying about being kidnapped
My world is peaceful

The Flowers of the Spring
by Carrie Tomlinson
Honorable Mention

The petals fall from the flower
now to the ground.

More flowers grow.
The sun shines on the flowers
and more flowers
grow
and
grow.

This special purple flower
makes the moon sparkle
and the stars
and the planets.

When people die
flowers
fall from the sky.