Grades 1st-3rd

First Place

Second Place

A World of Peacemakers
By Max Breschi
Grade 1

We are the instruments
Creating music.
Sounds of kindness,
Sounds of love,
Sounds of happiness.
Together,
We can make
Peace.

Music is Worth Singing
By Cheyenne Delp
Grade 3

Music is worth singing
Music is worth singing
No matter who you are or how you speak
Music is worth singing
Because it is understood over all the lands.

Grades 4-5

First Place

Second Place

Music Around the World
By Jennifer March
Grade 5

Music brings us all together,
Music brings the whole world peace and love,
You can sing along with us,
Music flies as fast as a dove,
Some people love to sing all day and night,
Singing never causes the world to fight.

Still Strong
By Caleb Kirk
Grade 4

When the world is full of war and hunger,
How will the people speak to one another?
When the world has different religions and beliefs,
The people could use a lot of peaceful relief.
There is one thing that all languages understand,
The extraordinary music played by a band.
How will the cultures do their part?
Ethnic music still reaches everyone’s heart.

Second Place

United With Music
By Jessie Opilo
Grade 4

            We join in song!
Let our voices unite ~ red, yellow, black, brown, and white.

 We sing of love for harmony.
Combining our voices in a rainbow melody.

 Each not is a color in its own,
Simple, yet complex until uniting with others to form the perfect tone. 

 So we all came here to sing of peace, love and harmony,
Here today at Amani

Grades 9-12

First Place

Second Place

Hold & Repeat
By Alex Rouse
Grade 10

we paint rivers of silence
that begin to laugh once realized
we hold forks up to the moon,
and chows up up up
pure sky.
you know

whole note
quarter note, rest
repeat.

we are the sound
of one hand clapping.
koan, unsolved

japa, repeat
slur, hold, rest

tie to next measure
one two three & four

we dance, at least we are learning
to at least we are remembering
to lest we forget,
you know. 

eighth note run
tremolo 

we reside between the few seconds
it takes for a cd to skip to the next song, we live
between the words of prayer, we sleep
between the drum beats.
you know. 

hold & repeat 

mantra echoes 

we are the silence
that makes the music
you know. 

and 

we are the place where you are when
you aren’t where you are.
but you are, you know. 

hold & repeat 

we are sufis entrance or, 

rest
pick up
slur, hold, rest 

sudi trance of satori, or um,
aum
om
hold & repeat 

om, or 

hold & repeat 

you know
you know

On Nygard’s “A Distant Alleluia”
 By Rachel Hoke
Grade 12 

                                    Alleluia,
                       Alleluia,
Alleluia,

Though only with a single word,
Somehow the whisper must be heard, 

                                                Alleluia,                          Alleluia,
                                                Alleluia, 

Softly we begin to sing,
Then build until the echoes ring, 

Alleluia,
Alleluia,
Alleluia, 

Such sound we never knew there was,
Yet still the room yields no applause, 

                        Alleluia,                                                   Alleluia,
Alleluia, 

For no one hears our joyful noise
As all our hearts sing with one voice, 

                        Alleluia,
Alleluia,
                        Alleluia, 

The hall is empty, the only sound
As the power to touch the world is found: 

Alleluia,                                                                           Alleluia,                                                   Alleluia.