In 1969 Yoko Ono and John Lennon planted acorns in the grounds of Coventry Cathedral, England. The idea was to symbolize how peace could grow around the world from planting small seeds.

Yoko and John also mailed acorns to various world leaders, asking that they be planted for peace.

John referenced the project in the closing verse of “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” recorded with the Beatles: “Caught the early plane back to London / Fifty acorns tied in a sack.”

In 1996, Yoko, pictured here on the cover of an issue of The Wire magazine from that year, wrote 100 conceptual poems about how we related to ourselves, others, and the world we live in. She called the project Acorn. In 2008 she released the poems on the Internet, one each day.

On the fiftieth anniversary of her landmark book Grapefruit, Acorn was published for the first time as a book. Yoko commented, “Now Acorn is being published in book form. I’m riding a time machine that’s going back to the old ways. Great!”

In 1980, John said how important Yoko’s books were to “Imagine”: “A lot of it—the lyric and the concept—came from Yoko.” Right now, today, Yoko is re-releasing a new edit of “Imagine”—and you can get your own copy of Acorn.

THE END, OR MAYBE THE BEGINNING