by Eva van Loon
Growing out of the International Peace-Poem Society  which began in Hawaii in 1996, the new International Peace-Poem Walkers’ Association (IPPWA) chose as its motto, “Peace and poetry at a human pace.”

The idea of IPPWA is to walk the International Peace Poem--just parts of it, as the whole thing is now over 90,000 lines in length--from one community to the next and to take part in peace-related activities at each destination.

The purposes of the new society include public education about peace and peace-building, as well as publication and promotion of peace poetry. Initial directors are Allan Brown, Randy Pinchbeck, Barb Rees, Lyla Smith, and Eva van Loon.

IPPWA takes on the sponsorship of the Youth Peace-Poem Competition and the publication of the PRIPPA annual anthology of winning poems from that competition.The Live Poets’ Guild, who started the Competition in 2008, will continue to co-ordinate both activities.

The Competition ends with an Awards Ceremony, April 8 at the Max Cameron Theatre, with poetry, lyrics and music. Well known singer-songwriter Valdy will conduct a song-writing workshop and perform with some of the Competition’s participants.

IPPWA welcomes new members and look forward to public support and ideas from the public for showcasing  the ideals of peace and poetry. 

by Eva van Loon

Englese or English, Chinese or Chinglish, Pidgin or Polish—whatever your language, its poetry flows over your soul like a river of peace.
Let us present a little Water Music from the youngest entrants (Grades 1-3) in this year’s Youth Peace-Poem Competition. These poems are included in PRIPPA 2009: Can You Hear Peace? Get your copy—why not start inventing music around our children’s lovely words?

Love, as rainbows love rain,
as mice love cheese, as boots
love splashing in puddles,
as blueberries love pancakes
—Morgan LaBree, Grief Point School

Times with April
Swimming with April
at a peaceful time of day.
Drying in the sun.
—Matthew Ure, Grief Point

Solitary Fun
Peacefully fishing
Here I watch the fish pass by
I have fun fishing
—Joey McCullough, Grief Point

Dolphin
Blue sea
Dolphin swim fast
Something blue jumping there
It is fun swimming at the beach
Water
—Camryn Infanti, PR Christian School

Peaceful Swimming
Swimming in the lake
Sand squishes between my toes
Scared fish dodge away.
—Sarah Shelton, Grief Point

GROUP WINNERS

Grades 1-3

First Prize—Janelle Critchley

Butterfly Field
They’re gentle when playing
And pretty as they come
A stream of peace and a forest of love
Critters are running and jumping to play
Butterfly field is the place to stay
The baby foxes come out of their den
And play around with the animals of peace, Raccoon,
Love, Deer, and don’t forget
The animal of joy, Ferret

Second Prize—Rylyn Christensen

Peace is Helping People
Peace is helping people
Peace is kind
Peace is letting people in your games
Peace is taking care of yourself

Third Prize—Morgan Lbree

Love
Love like rainbows love rain
like mice love cheese
like boots love splashing in puddles
like blueberries love pancakes

GRAND PRIZES

First Prize
Kyran King
Grade 10, Brooks School

The Sum of All Conflicts

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.

by The Live Poets' Guild

Powell River Live Poets’ Guild ventures in new directions with Parallel: Forty-nine Canadian poets speak to Obama. About five hundred Canadian poets were invited to a competition for poems that tell the new American president something essential about being Canadian. 



by Eva van Loon

Flushed with the joy of publishing PRIPPA 2008: Friendship Never Ends, the first annual anthology of winning peace poems by Powell River’s kids, the Powell River Live Poets’ Guild has and found congenial homes for carrying on its poetic activities in the new year.

The fledgling Powell River Live Poets’ Guild has overtaken the literary world by charging ahead with a Youth Peace-Poem Contest in the spring of 2008, in connection with the International Peace-Poem Project, School District #47, and the Powell River Writers’ Festival, and then publishing the delightful results on Lulu.com, an online marketplace for digital content.

You can secure your copy of the most uplifting, hopeful, and charming collection of youthful thoughts on peace and the future possible by contacting the guild.

This issue of Immanence celebrates trees. What better way to celebrate the lungs of the earth than getting together around your potted–but real!–Solstice tree? Or your magically lit, petroleum-based creation made by a toilet-brush company out of trees from the dinosaur age? Or a pile of burning, chopped-up trees, song book in hand? Whatever your homage to the Tree, put on the hot chocolate, pull up a stump, and sing along to these old tunes made new again.

Sustainable Loggers’ Lament
Put together by Lyla Smith of the
Powell River Raging Grannies.
(To the tune of “Norwegian Wood”)

We once had some woods–
or should we say,
the forest had trees
You cut them all down,
but wasn’t it good
when we had woods?

CHORUS
I had this nightmare:
you don’t see the forest—just trees
and your greed is so blind,
it’s like some made social disease....

and when I awoke,
it was still true–
the land was laid bare.
Ah, wasn’t it good
hiking the wild
when we had woods?

CHORUS
Again here, I’m dreaming.
They’re still shaving mountainsides bare;
the wildlife runs, hiding;
then finds its home is nowhere.....

No, this is no dream.
You young ones today
will tell your own kids,
“When I was your age,
a forest stood here–
not just these few trees..

SLOWER, QUIETER
Ah, wasn’t it good
when we had woods...

Oh, Solstice Tree, oh, Solstice tree,
how lovely are your branches!
Oh, Solstice Tree, oh, Solstice tree,
how lovely are your branches!
The thought of you as Yule draws near
brings joyful tidings of good cheer.
Oh, Solstice Tree, oh, Solstice tree,
to us you are so lovely.

Oh, Solstice Tree, oh, Solstice tree,
evergreen and fragrant,
Oh, Solstice Tree, oh, Solstice tree,
evergreen and fragrant,
We bring you into homes to be
a sign of life’s eternity.