Anna Grossnickle Hines is a poet who brings a beautiful blend of poetry and quilting expertise to her books for children. Since I am a poetry enthusiast, and my wife is a professional embroidery artist, we were thrilled to discover her picture books!
Her 2011 picture book, Peaceful Pieces, contains a poem that will speak to younger and older writers alike. It is called “Peace: A Recipe,” and the picture under the poem shows how the quilting complements the words.
Peace: A Recipe
Open minds — at least two.
Willing hearts — the same.
Rinse well with compassion.
Stir in a fair amount of trust.
Season with forgiveness.
Simmer in a sauce of respect.
A dash of humor brightens the flavor.
Best served with hope.
Here is how the poem looks in its original context on the quilted background created by the poet.
I first wrote about this poem in a 2019 blog post in which I asked students to reflect on peacemaking and the people in their own lives, using the poem to coax them toward personal epiphanies. But there is another use for this poem.
What if we use it as a mentor text to write the poem “Hope: A Recipe” closing with this inversion of Hines’ original line: “Best served with peace.”
What is it that helps us cook up hope? How might we proportion the measurements of what hope requires?
Brainstorm ingredients, craft a recipe, and we already have a closing line before we start!
Does this minilesson feel too disconnected from your required curriculum? Try tying it to some recent reading. What would a character in the book you are reading as a class need to include in their personal recipe for hope? The poetry pause suddenly becomes more than a creative writing exercise – it is a reading response too!
Looking for more poetry pauses like this one?
Check out my book, Poetry Pauses, from Corwin or from Amazon.
Also, as a companion to this series of posts, check out the re-release of the pre-recorded, thirty-minute webinar, Poetry for the Dark Days with 10 poetry pauses, published in neither the blog nor the book, to help see us through the literal and figurative dark days this winter. It’s available now through November 1, 2025 for download. Once it’s yours, you can watch it at whatever
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