by Eva van Loon

Powell River’s Live Poets’ Guild has invited the International Peace Poem Project to alight on the Sunshine Coast.

Hatched on Maui, Hawaii, in 1996, the International Peace Poem, at two lines per poet in almost any language you can name, has grown to over 700,000 lines and was presented to the United Nations Assembly by founders the Maui Live Poets’ Guild in 2000. And it just keeps growing! (You can see the scroll at www.peacepoem.org.)

Associated with the Peace Poem is the annual Peace Poem Contest for children and youth. The “season of peace and non-violence”, beginning on Martin Luther King Day in the US and honoring the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948, as well, has grown popular as a time for people planet-wide to express their desire for peace.

Prizes at three levels will be awarded in four age-linked categories: Grade 3 or equivalent, Grades 4-6, Grades 7-9, Grades 10-12. All young poets to age 18 can ask teachers for details, or, if not in a grade or class, can email Kaimana.wolff@yahoo.ca for an entry form. Deadline for entries is March 15, 2008. There’s no fee, and no limit to the number of entries.

One grand prize winner will be chosen from the pool of winners. Winners will be announced at the Writers’ Festival banquet in April. Remember—you’re never too young for this: five-year-olds have won in the past, and deserved it.