On 2 July, the Peace Garden in Le Quesnoy hosted a moment that was both poetic and symbolic as part of the Poetry Plane event.
Coordinated from the United Kingdom by the WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust and, in Le Quesnoy, by the Le Quesnoy–New Zealand Association, this initiative involved the release of poems from an aircraft flying over the Peace Garden.
The pupils of Chevray School in Le Quesnoy, along with students from other primary schools in the surrounding area, wrote these poems on biodegradable paper containing seeds of poppies, cornflowers, and forget-me-nots—three flowers strongly associated with remembrance.
The New Zealand Liberation Museum also had the pleasure of contributing to this event. Thanks to the connections established during Southland Girls’ High School’s visit to the museum last April, a class from the school sent us a collection of beautiful cinquains by email—a form of poetry consisting of five lines. These poems from New Zealand were then carefully transcribed by pupils from Houdain-lez-Bavay Primary School during their visit to the museum. Their participation gave this project an international dimension, bringing together young people from two countries around a shared message of peace, remembrance, and hope.
The release of these poems created a shared moment of emotion, witnessed by members of the WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust and the Le Quesnoy–New Zealand Association, representatives of the local council, museum staff, students and their teachers, as well as local residents who had come to discover the event.
Through this beautiful initiative, words became seeds of remembrance, destined to bloom long after the day itself had passed.
