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The Valentine Peace Project (VPP) is a developing social enterprise connecting individuals, communities, gardens and the floral trade to the creative work of peace.
The Project began more than five years ago and continues as a larger themed Valentine's Day, spreading thousands of submitted original peace poems and reflections on meanings of love - from Zimbabwe, Kenya, England, the Netherlands, Israel, Palestine, New Zealand and the US.
"The world reflects back digging deep down inside . . The doors are open to a whole new store . . Cupid is here living with love . . Spread the care and feel for others . . Treat everyone as your brothers . . Away, away, away, peace is everywhere.” (Twelve year old's poem submission to the Project)
Next to promoting a Community Valentine in February we sell Dutch peace tulip bulbs around the International Day of Peace in September. The VPP plans to design a Valentine Peace tulip and produce bulbs as tools for international peace organisations as well as promote community peace poetry gardens and Fairtrade including conflict and post-conflict flowers and horticulture.
"Freedom's flowers are blooming." (US journalist on the Arab Spring)
As flowers helped evolve our planet it's time to evolve ourselves - from conflict and poverty to justice and sustainability - from pure commercialism to purposeful products - gifts of love working for peace. Peace is generally understood on three levels - inner, community and global. By inspiring poetry and art; education and awareness; transformative trade and new symbolism for global community and identity the VPP builds connection through community participation as well as VPP flowers and bulbs.
"The purpose of activism and art is to make a world in which people are producers of meaning, not just consumers." Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark - The Untold History of People Power
If you are a teacher or community coordinator and would like to participate in a larger hearted Valentine's day please contact us. If you are a retailer wanting creative horticultural peace products also contact us.
If you desire to be part of 'new institutions to match new cultural realities' (Occupied Times of London) - sign up for the newsletter on the right to keep posted.
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Every country has a flower, every product a story, and every heart a message.
  
Photos of participants and recipients of flowers and poems in Amsterdam, San Francisco, and London
Building a Community Valentine and the International Day of Peace the VPP spreads messages around the globe and brings the horticulture and international floral trade to the work of peace creating a more expansive and connected expression of love.
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Somewhere, just a short time before the close of the Age of Reptiles, there occurred a soundless, violent explosion.. . It marked the emergence of the angiosperms—the flowering plants . . Flowers changed the face of the planet. Without them, the world we know—even man himself—would never have existed. How Flowers Changed the World by Anthropologist and Scientist Loren Eiseley
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Nothing has been more moving to me than this desire, realized imperfectly but repeatedly, to connect across differences, to be a community, to make a better world, to embrace each other . . to something unprecedented, a beloved community that circles the globe. Occupy Your Heart by Rebecca Solnit
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VPP Poems
Before the night dies again on my lips,
flash a sign from there my love,
make a sign of life- so that I can live
ending howls in sounds of peace
From To a Soldier, Ada Aharoni, Israel
Ieder deel onderdeel
Samen een geheel
Afzonderlijk nietig en klein
Groots Samen Zijn
All individual pieces
Part of a whole
Negligible and small on their own
Together make something big
Anja, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Instead of wanting roses
Or chocolates (just a few)
What I want, from the heart,
Is peace from me to you.
From Roxanne, Marlborough School, Los Angeles
One day...
when the dust settles
and the rain washes us clean
The story of the olive tree will emerge.
From Planted Olive Trees, Anonymous, Bethlehem
Peace is the courage to speak out, shatter comfort, demand justice. .
That Buddha is not napping . . he's resting from a conflict resolution conference
with his roommate.
He is considering the next move he will make to stir petals into beauty.
From Painted Blossoms, Kimberly Wilder, New York, USA
Teniamo sempre in riserva il nostro azzurro in tasca,
ci potrebbe essere utile sempre.
Inseriamo nella nostra tasca oltre l'azzurro del mare e del cielo
l'arcobaleno e sicuri avremo per sempre la pace.
Let’s save our blue sky in our pocket, it can be used always and everywhere
If we take in our pocket the blue of the sky, the blue from the sea and a little bit of rainbow
We will be sure to have peace forever….
From Peace (Pace), Alberto Teodori, Rome, Italy
Oh, Cupid and your bow of Peace
If you use the bow to bring the world together
Nobody will ever be alone. .
Our steps to love and peace are
Larger than you know.
From Oh Cupid, Megan Kincaid, Paul Revere School, Los Angeles, USA
I have always been able to find it. In Myself.
In a Book that inspires me. In Family.
In my Dad's cooking. In Friends.
In the eyes of a stranger. In a soup kitchen.
In an airport. The key is to never stop looking.
From Love, Courtney, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA, USA
We celebrate your gift
However vaguely remembered
By romantics and poets Your love essence remains
Yet we only know it now as a dress rehearsal . .
But a higher love beckons
One we will yet experience
From Letter to St. Valentine, Sophia La Toa, New Zealand
This poem isn't here to make you feel guilt,
But to make you stop and think about the world around us.
So that maybe one day.
We can enjoy
A day where we appreciate
some chocolate, or a homemade card.
From Laura, Marlborough School, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The world reflects back digging deep down inside . .
The doors are open to a whole new store . .
The past is gone, things you must live without . .
Away, away, away, peace is everywhere.
From Justin Ruder, Paul Revere School, Los Angeles, CA, USA
I have a poem for peace to the world
A poem that'll never accept dictatorships
A poem that'll victoriously shine in the midst
of darkness to steer the world for light
From I Have a Poem, Walter Keyombe, Nairobi, Kenya
Art contains the essence of what is deepest in each of us. .
Although you are far & I do not know your face
I know your heart . . you are the white doves
you are the glory of peace.
From The Glory of Peace, Ammar Banni, Algeria, Africa
To keep home you must see beauty
To see beauty you must know love
To know love you must learn to fly
From Fly to Love, Wayne Visser, England
It's Cupid's day off, And in his place
Is a Cupid with the same face
But a different mission, a different cause
The sub for Cupid will be waiting . .
From Cupid's Day Off, Ali Ryan-Plasil, Paul Revere School, Los Angeles
It is contained in the marvelous crystalline lattice,
held by the heart strings, plucked like a harp,
We are here for just an instant and vanish like a snowflake. .
But the heart, the heart- it lasts forever.
From The Crystalline Lattice, Terri Glass, San Francisco, CA, USA
Let go of everything you know
And let all become new . .
By seeing the beauty in all things . .
From Student, Boise, Idaho, USA
Ne rêves-tu pas d’un monde meilleur? D’un monde nouveau, bâti sur de vraies valeurs, Une vraie justice, Où l’Amour et la paix règnent en vainqueur! Toi et moi devons y contribuer.
(Don't you dream of a better world? A new world, built on real values, real justice, where Love and Peace win. You and I must contribute to this.)
From Amour, A. Soro, Ivory Coast, Africa
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