Cortlandt Kid Wins National Peace Poetry Contest

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has announced the winners of the 2016 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry contest.

Held since 1005, it is an annual series of awards to encourage poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The Poetry Awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under.

The winner in the age 12 and under category is a Cortlandt Manor resident. Here's his winning poem:

Me and You
by Kiran Treacy-Hind
Youth Category (12 and Under), First Place

The world talks to me in my head and birds chirping in the wind and the sun shining on my face.
Dogs looking for their bones, while I see beauty in every face.
The world brings us together,
it moves as slow as a sloth.
People live in different ways, treat them the same way.
The world has so many mysteries
that no one knows and may not find.
We all have two shadows inside us, but it helps us, it finds who we are, in this place where
people live and die, and will never find why they were born.
The world brings us together, like a mother and her child.
It moves us, helps us, and cares for us. So why are we killing the earth, if we help it,
it will grow so we can grow.
We may feel helpful to poor children,
We may be helpful to people that
have been bullied and all sadness all
hate will wash away, as the sun shines
on the water, as the birds fly in the
wind and never stop seeing beauty.

Click here to read the winning poems from all years of the contest.

The 2017 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards are now accepting entries. The deadline has been extended to July 1, 2017.

For more information about the annual contest, visit www.peacecontests.org.