In only its second year in Powell River, the Youth Peace Poem Competition, hosted by the Powell River Live Poets; Guild and running parallel with the International Peace Poem Project in the US, attracted more participants than in 2008, and nearly filled the Max Cameron Theatre for an Awards Ceremony.
About two hundred acknowledgments of the students’ fine work were given out. Nine or ten students braved the onstage microphone to read their own work, including peace poems in French and English read by students from École Cȏte du Soleil, appearing together onstage. Ms. Gesell and Ms. Evans’ Edgehill class performed their couplets in a group choral work they put together to express youth’s preference for peaceful home life involving friends, family, pets, and the outdoors. Local poet Allan Brown spoke to the students and their families about the experience of having a life in poetry. Ms. Barb Rees of the Powell River Festival of Writers was pleased to award the top three winners, whose poems appear below, a pass to next year’s writers’ conference along with the generous cash prizes from the First Credit Union: $200 for first place, $100 for second, and $50 for third.
The second-place winner, Zoey Schutz, wrote in from Sechelt. As the only out-of-jurisdiction entrant, she was included with local Grade Sevens and did very well. Next year she hopes to take part in a separate competition on the Lower Sunshine Coast.
The second Powell River International-Peace-Poem Anthology (PRIPPA 2009) will publish all the winning poems and honorable mentions in a handsome book published and manufactured entirely in Powell River. The expected price per copy is $15. Anyone can order using the form on page 16.
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