Poems for Peace: Voices of Calm, Connection and Community
Introduction
In a world that often feels torn by division, conflict and urgency, the notion of peace can seem both essential and elusive. Yet poetry has long offered a space for reflection, for imagining something beyond strife, and for building connection. As Poetry Foundation notes, the “peace shelf” of literature is not simply about anti-war protest, but a larger exploration of how we live together, how we build justice, and how we imagine a world of mutual care. The Poetry Foundation
Poems of peace invite us to slow down, to listen, to witness. They remind us that peace is more than the absence of violence — it is a way of being, a rhythm of relationship, a continuing practice of listening and speaking, giving and receiving. As poet Denise Levertov writes (discussed in the Poetry Foundation article): “Peace is not defined by an absence of war, but it is an energy field.” The Poetry Foundation
For communities such as ours in Coventry, and especially as we gather at our upcoming event Stories of Peace: A Community Storytelling Walk in the Park, the power of poetry is doubly meaningful. It becomes a tool for connection — between individuals, between generations, between culture and landscape. It prepares us to walk together, to share voices, to build peace not just as idea but as experience.
Below, you will find several poems that evoke different facets of peace: the intimate, the communal, the visionary. Each one offers an invitation — to listen, to reflect, to act.
Selected Poems About Peace
1. “Peace” by George Herbert
“Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave, / Let me once know…” Read the poem
Herbert writes in quiet longing, seeking the presence of peace within the everyday. The poem captures the way peace may hide in simple places, and how our longing for it is both humble and profound.
2. “Making Peace” by Denise Levertov
Levertov, deeply engaged with the peace movement, argues that poetry must offer “the imagination of peace … not only the absence of war.” In Making Peace, she explores how peace demands a restructuring of the very sentences of our lives — how we live, how we speak, how we relate.
A voice from the dark called out,
“The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.”
But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses. . . .
A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light—facets
of the forming crystal.
3. “Peace Walk” by William Stafford
In this deceptively simple poem, Stafford turns a protest march into a meditation on movement, solidarity and ordinary people walking toward something new. He invites us to imagine what peace-making looks like not just in great gestures but in everyday acts of walking and being together.
We wondered what our walk should mean
taking that un-march quietly;
the sun stared at our signs—“Thou shalt not kill.”
Men by a tavern said, “Those foreigners . . . ”
to a woman with a fur, who turned away—
like an elevator going down, their look at us.
Along a curb, their signs lined across,
a picket line stopped and stared
the whole width of the street, at ours: “Unfair.”
Above our heads the sound truck blared—
by the park, under the autumn trees—
it said that love could fill the atmosphere:
Occur, slow the other fallout, unseen,
on islands everywhere—fallout, falling
unheard. We held our poster up to shade our eyes.
At the end we just walked away;
no one was there to tell us where to leave the signs.
4. “Let Peace Prevail in This World” by Ravi Sathasivam
“When you look for peace / then the peace lies within you / When you search for peace / then it is not hard to find…” Read the Poem
A modern, accessible poem that reminds us peace is both inside and outside — it begins with the self, and radiates outward into the community and world.
5. Additional poems to explore
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“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — a classic meditation on peace on earth and goodwill to men.
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“Peace XVIII” by Kahlil Gibran — which depicts nature’s own battle and calm, and the quiet that follows.
Why These Matter & How You Can Use Them
These poems work on multiple levels. They offer personal reflection, communal invitation and societal vision. For your own reading, they can be anchors of calm. For group settings — such as Emerald Book Club’s event in Red House Park — they provide shared touchstones, points to pause and reflect together.
At our Stories of Peace walk, we will gather in nature, listen to stories and poems, share our own voices. These poems become part of the soundscape of peace we build together. They remind us that peace is active: walking together, listening together, sharing stories under trees in Coventry.
Closing Invitation
We hope you will come to our event:
📅 Saturday 8 November 2025
🕐 1–3 PM
📍 Red House Park, Coventry
Free, open to all.
Bring your favourite poem about peace, or simply arrive to listen. Let’s walk, read, and share – creating peace not just in our minds, but in our neighbourhoods and among our neighbours.
May your reading — and our walking — carry the pulse of peace.
