K-8 Winning Peace Poetry to Take the Stage at SUNY Geneseo

GENESEO – This Mother’s Day, young winners of SUNY Geneseo’s Peace Poetry Contest will take the stage to share poems on what makes them feel tranquil.

According to a press release from SUNY Geneseo, the contest is run every year by students and faculty in the College’s English Department. 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.

“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 19 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, hunting outings or even the love a student can feel for their favorite foods.

One of last year’s winners, first grade student Jeanine Nunez, taught by Mrs. Dean at Mount Morris Central School, wrote the following poem, which SUNY Geneseo said is 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 local residents. Each student takes home a presentation chapbook featuring poems by all attending readers.

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.