One Little Seed of Peace, Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA.

Submitted: February 9, 2026

The Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island installed its first Peace Pole at Waypoint Park.

When we remember that the world began with a big bang, it’s easy to see
how we might have gotten used to just such a crescendo –

loud sounds and explosions of light – that maybe we were born out of it
and learned to walk to the beat of that drama…like a natural law…

a gravitational pull that puts us in front of the evening news. We grieve
for the injustices, but we refuse to accept conflict as a way of life.

Today we plant this Peace Pole on Bainbridge Island as an internationally recognized
symbol of peace, remembering our original peoples in their four tongues,

each one saying the same thing that we wish to say together with all the world:
May Peace Prevail on Earth. In this new year, now that we have endured the shortest days,

the bitter cold at the peak of winter season, even snow falling on the southern coastal
states while flames blazed in California, now that inauguration day has come and gone,

let’s remember that around the world there are more than 250,000 Peace Poles
in over 200 countries dedicated as monuments to peace.

And each time we see one (Peace Pole) we can drop to our knees or reach for the treetops
to ask for world peace. We, living here by a sea that touches all people,

can learn to listen for stillness on the water and lean in to see the ripple effect
of just one little seed of peace, dropped by each of us.

This poem was commissioned for our Peace Pole Dedication by local poet Meg Bishop.