The History of Project Equinox

In March 1996, I volunteered to develop a website for The Centerfold, a venerable poetry group that is New York's longest-running literary event, now in its 26th year. My concept for the website was to invite poets throughout the world to send their poems to my e-mail box to be read on stage in New York City. Within only a few months, I found myself communicating regularly with dozens of poets on a worldwide basis. It soon occurred to me that I could use of my new position to create an extraordinary and unprecedented event, in which poets would write a poem about their corner of the world at one moment in time.

Choosing the appropriate day would be essential for such an event, I knew. On summer solstice 1996, the solution came to me as the orange glow of the rising sun shone through my window: The day of the equinox, a symbol of equality, balance, and harmony, would provide the perfect metaphor for such an event. With three months to galvanize as many poets as I could, I began immediately. Soon possessed by the concept, I created a spin-off website from The Centerfold Online for the project, and spent every free moment writing to the poets, newsgroups and other poetry webmasters. The response was very encouraging. People were intrigued by the idea of participating in what I hoped would be the biggest poetry writing assignment in world history.

I quickly enlisted the aid of a friend here in New York, Jennifer MacKleod Kelly to help approach websites for links. Another friend and New Yorker, Amelia Trader, soon became enthused with the project and volunteered countless hours of her free time to helping in every way. And then, some of the best, conceptual help, materialized from the ether of the Internet.

In mid August I received a letter from Lynda Clowers, of Tennessee. A complete stranger, she offered her free time for the project because it was "a labor of love." Something about those words crystallized the concept for me as never before. I realized how much love was streaming through my computer daily. Through our combined efforts, we were in actuality propagating peace throughout the world, simply by thinking peaceful thoughts. It was then, on August 26th, that I could first call Project Equinox a project for world peace. I quickly announced it as such, and the energy for the project increased exponentially.

Looking back on those feverish days of incessant e-mailing and website updating, I can only say that I was possessed by the spirit of the project. I don't know how I got through it all while working a full-time job. Amelia Trader was always encouraging me, tirelessly sending out press releases, dealing with poets and webmasters and overall co-piloting the event. Exhilarating as it was, we were also nearing exhaustion. I had no idea how I'd carry on past the Equinox, when all the poems had to be programmed into a website, but I just plowed ahead. This is when an astonishing e-mail arrived from Iceland, from a web designer named Birgitta Jónsdóttir. Writing that she was "in love" with the project she volunteered to arrange a special URL, to design the website and to serve it from Iceland! It seemed too good to be true, and I gladly accepted her offer.

By the time the equinox arrived, we had sent out thousands of e-mails and letters. I was practically numb on Monday, September 23, the day of the event (shifted a few hours to accommodate religious observances and those who compute from the office). My fear that only a handful of poets would actually come through evaporated when I got home from work and found my mailbox contained over 200 poems! It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my entire life. I felt as if I had tossed a wish like a ball up into the sky, a ball that was caught the world over by kindred spirits from Sri Lanka to the Philippines, wrapped with words of love and then tossed back to me. I was enraptured by this awesome sensation, an experience that could never have occurred before the popularization of the Internet.

Now the ball was in the court of Birgitta, who single-handedly undertook the task of organizing all the poems and designing the website. Amelia and I entrusted Birgitta completely, although we'd never met her in person over even spoken on the telephone. Then another small miracle happened: The Cultural Administration of the Icelandic government financed a trip for Birgitta to come to New York City to meet with us as well as to attend an Internet conference with Vice President, Al Gore! Our meeting was all too brief, but it was a thrill indeed finally to see each other face-to-face.

As with all new undertakings, e did encounter a bump on the road to completion. The website, having been been promised for the winter solstice, was too immense for one person to handle alone, especially with no financial support With an apology to the participants, we had to delay the debut of the website to the spring equinox (a preview was available to the poets). When March 21 arrived, Birgitta had the project completed and living on the World Wide Web. It was only then that the true power and beauty of the project could be appreciated by us all.

Volunteer for Project Equinox 1997

With the first edition of Project Equinox a reality and success, we are looking forward to making our quest for peace an annual event, hoping to attract poets from every country on earth. But we cannot accomplish this without the support of the Internet community. You can join us if you can:

• Recruit poets
• Send a tax-deductable donation
• Help to contact the media or provide a media contact list
• Solicit foundations and appropriate corporate sponsors

If you want to join us, then by all means click here.

With good fortune, Project Equinox will continue to grow, spreading and peace throughout our planet. It will continue to inspire and empower individuals to take positive steps and make a reality of their elusive ideals for themselves and for all of humanity. And one day, maybe one day, peace will rule the planet.

Maurice Peterson
Spring
1997

[Back]