The Year of the Poet VII January 2020

ForewordA new decade dawns with poetry and wisdom. This is our collective poetry posse's seventh year publishing The Year of The Poet with a book a month from Inner Child Press. It has been our great privilege to share much beauty and soothe pain with words of insight and laughter, words that rhythm and dance across the page, bouncing off into the reader's heart. Each year we contemplate a theme, delving into ideas, finding words to describe feelings, conflicts, relationships and growth. This year may our vision be 20-20 as we contemplate the words and ideas of Nobel Peace Prize winners. And may we share our understanding of the world and how-to live-in peace with each other in a way that goes deep and touches what is real, raw, powerful and magnificent.There are as many ways to win a Nobel Peace Prize as there are ways to find peace in this world. In January, we celebrate the 1901 prize shared by two Europeans: Jean Henry Dunant (Swiss) and Fr d ric Passy (French). Dunant found peace in compassion for the wounded of all nations on all sides of each war. He founded the Red Cross. Passy felt that peace is found in economic justice and free trade. He was dubbed the "dean" of the international peace movement.A shout out to Martin Luther King, Jr. who would have been 91 this month and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his non-violent opposition to discrimination. This year of poetry is an opportunity to think about what we have learned from world history and our own personal experiences of peace, compassion, security and justice. It is an opportunity to contemplate how we respond to conflict, injustice and violence, how it changes us and how we grow in the aftermath of life's challenges.May we all find peace in poetry and in the day to day of life in 2020 wherever in the world we find ourselves. Happy New Year.Kimberly BurnhamSpokane, Washington