Every spring in K-8 classrooms throughout the Genesee Valley, students think hard about what makes them feel calm, peaceful and at ease. They write poems as part of the Genesee Valley Peace Poetry Contest, and hundreds of students submit their works each year, whether as individual writers or as part of a class or school-wide activity.
The contest is run every year by students and faculty in the English Department at SUNY Geneseo, and contest winners from 16 area school districts will be featured during a ceremony May 14 where the students will read their works and receive awards. The event begins at 2 p.m. in Wadsworth Auditorium and is free and open to the public. It's the 12th year of the event.
“I love how the students take time to stop and notice when they’re writing,” said Lytton Smith, assistant professor of poetry at SUNY Geneseo. “Their poems help them find the things they feel and know, but aren’t necessarily aware of.”
The contest is available for kindergarten through eighth grade students from 16 area school districts in the Genesee Valley. In the contest, the students are asked to comment on peace by creating a poem. The students’ interpretations of peace in the past have covered a range of topics, such as domestic strife, family members serving in war zones, or even the love a student can feel for their favorite foods.
At times the students’ poems deal with domestic strife, or loved ones in war zones; at times they recount hunting trips, calm moments with friends, their love of their favorite foods. One of last year’s winners, 1st grade student Jeanine Nunez, taught by Mrs. Dean at Mt. Morris Central, wrote the following poem, worthy of a classical haiku:
When it is peace
it sounds like
no one is there
The Peace Poetry Reading and presentation of awards is a major event within the Genesee Valley community calendar: a Mother’s Day celebration attended by 400 people, with around 60 students invited to read their poems to an audience including their families, teachers, and area residents. Each student takes home a presentation chapbook featuring the poems of all the readers—a memorial for students to take home, and an inspiration to their peers.
A small reception with refreshments will follow, generously sponsored by Campus Auxiliary Services at SUNY Geneseo. Peace Poetry is made possible thanks to funding from the English Department and the Provost’s Office.
Media Contact:
David Irwin
Media Relations Director
(585) 245-5529
Irwin@geneseo.edu