Peaceful Poetry Winning Entries

Whatcom County children ages 4-18 submitted poems they created using peaceful themes. The results were beautiful and inspiring. Congratulations to the five young poets who were selected as the 2021 winners. Read their poems below and see

for more!

by Ruby Thomas, age 14

Sehome High School

All my memories fit into the palm of a crab shell, But I'm okay with that. I spend so much time trying to live up to other peoples' standards, For what? A taste of false reality? What is their validation worth to me? It is sweet and addictive like sugar, And I feed off of it until it fills my own voice, And I no longer can see clearly. The truth is that I am merely me, And I find peace with that. Perhaps in another world I'd be desperate for validation. Perhaps I'd like to expand and impose, To seek and to find, But for now, Who I am is enough. My memories and I can live happily in a crab shell.

To say "I am enough" Is more powerful than anything I could find in this world of objects, So perhaps I shall be happy with staying small, With helping others expand, To seek but never find what people say I should. Because my place on earth Is equal to a crab shell in the ocean, I don't impose, I am just here, I am loved, I am felt, I am enough.

by Josie Schayes, age 12

Cascades Montessori Middle School I am from new books and old stories. I am from the smell of rain and pancakes, the two best things to smell on a weekend morning.

I am from the sound of clashing swords and the yells, shouts and creaking of springs that accompany us on to the trampoline

I am from the crackle and pop of campfire sparks drifting upward then disappearing, the smell of smoke, nice until the wind blows it strait at you.

I am from the warmth of curling up next to my dog on a cold afternoon. I am from the joy of becoming one of the characters in a story.

I am from scraped knees and elbows, of the exhilaration of climbing, leaping from rock ledge to ledge. I am from the gracefulness of skiing floating, flying down hills snow stinging my face, wind roaring so loud it drowns out everything else. I am from the sky swooping diving, Free. I am from the whispers floating through my mind snippets of story singing every time. I am from new friends I've made and old ones I've kept, that is where I'm from so tell me where are you from?

Thank you to everyone who entered!

by Madison Farmer, age 13

Kulshan Middle School

Peace is like beauty In many ways, Some say you find it At the end of your days, But that’s not what I say, To me, Peace is when the silence is quiet, No words unheard, No feelings unspoken, The silence not begging to be broken, Say everything you mean And leave nothing unspoken.

by Stella Sullivan, age 9

Happy Valley Elementary

with the Peace comes happyness, with happyness comes Peace we help each other and that is me. that is what matters! we need Peace. Peace needs us.

by Silas O., age 17

Sehome High School I reverse the quiet kid who, late in the birch grove stopped their laughter by calling the owls down