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A CALL FOR PEACE

Rochelle L. Holt, Ph.D.

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*Appeared in The Pilot, North Carolina,

USA.,January 20, 1992.

Seems to me there are two types of poets, although there may be more, of course. I'm referring to the esoteric-academic who yearn for awards, grants and publications by university/commercial presses vs. the poets of the masses who write for the sheer joy of the personally/universally‑healing process. Stephen Gill belongs to the second category which is higher in new‑age usefulness and relevance.

He's the author of over twenty books (including novels literary criticism) and has been on radio and tv in Canada and other countries. His books have been published in Canada, England, India and the U.S.A.; two of them have been translated into other languages.

His awards are those that really matter, i.e. the honor Doctorate in Literature from World University (Arizona) for distinguished achievements to promote world peace as a writer and another Doctorate ln Literature from World Academy of Art and Culture for his dedication to spreading the message of humanhood through poetry. He is the Managing Editor of Writer's Lifeline in his spare time. Two books in particular are the focus in this review: The Dove of Peace and The Flowers of Thirst. They both reveal his special theme of love and peace as improving our lives and the world, certainly something all writers/readers should be concerned about and with!

In John B. Lee's lntroduction to Dove of Peace, he says of Gill poems: "They strike a balance between knowledge of this world and the aspiration for a better one without becoming cynical or naive in their desire for an unachieved ideal." From the title poem :

For a long time

I have been hearing

the dove of peace will be freed,

shortly...

For now, unfortunately, the dove is still merely a symbol like Picasso's signature on his Guernica paintings, considered "rare art" albeit "a social statement still not taken to heart."

In "Dreams tor Sale," the poet utters this same opinion :

I wish someone could lead:

any book, a sage, or a saint,

any man, woman or beast

who knows the path

to my Elysium fields.

So often, we are blind to what exists, what we as an individual can do to help our fellow human sufferers. In "A Strange Request," the poet notes "a man begged./He wore patched rags." But even in other lands apathy reigns:

Enveloping human waves

rushed close by

indifferent to his cries

in the heart of Delhi

the ages‑old city

proud of its deities.

But "Man Is Ever A Child:"

It is man's fate

tragic and grave

to chase pleasures

as do toddlers.

And "Where Are they" who would often solace"? Look only to Gill's work and know he does his part:

Where are the poets,

those pilots of word‑weapons,

who would stop

the march of madmen?...

Where are those

guided minds

to replace now

the guided missiles?

The Flowers of Thirst presents a solution to the problem of ennui regarding this quest for peace in the prior volume. The author says in his own Intro: "I firmly believe that to promote appreciation of other cultures, it is essential to emphasize similarities, rather than dissimilarities...'' These poems "are about that eternal flame, called love, which is a universal phenomenon."

Interesting to note that Canada, where the author resides now, is the second largest country in the world with her citizens representing every corner of the world yet retaining distinct heritage while all live together harmoniously. ("It publishes every year almost 300 newspapers in various ethnic languages.").

This book is divided into four parts: Rainbow Breast; Haunting Melody; Blissful Wine; Haiku. From the first segment:

Love is a melody

which stirs the soul of the clouds

melts the mist in the air

pushes down the rain showers

that kiss the earth in a harmony.

There is an acceptance of his yin side that is so appealing in this poet's work, something most male poets reject, deny or descry. In the second part, poem number 13, the poet says:

For you

I wanted to build a Taj Mahal of words

but could not face

the ghosts of demonic nights.

In the third part, we see the thirst satisfied, and we are glad and empathize as though we are the poet. In the poem "14" :

Depth of my lyrics

architect

of my joys and comforts;

my heart beats

within the perfume of your smiles.

Every drop of the river of my life

longs for you.

(Whatever happened to Rod McKuen? Who cares as long as we have Stephen Gill?) Finally, in fourth segment, we are not alienated by esoteric syllabification and abstruse imagery in boring haiku. We break the traditional 5,7,5 form as we read and enjoy Gill's new 5,5,7 pattern as in:

Monsoons from the eyes

feed the fire of love

what a strange territory.

Robert Bly conquered the commercial world with his poetic prose in Iron John. Synchronously, Stephen Gill has been saying the same in his limited editions that reach just as far if not further than Madison Avenue and the Best Seller List.

Woman in sight

life animates

mirage.

What is apparent in all of Stephen Gill's work is his generous use of imagery, the substance of all poetry to allow to comprehend the shadow, form and content inseparable as always but in a contemporary, unabstruse and most relevant fashion that remains timeless and universal.

Note the juxtaposition of first stanza of "We Are Proud" with the fourth in The Dove of Peace:

We are proud to view

the moon's cold breast

and to collect shallow knowledge

of distant planets

in our laps...

vs.

Yet we are not proud

of a single aircraft

accident‑free

to ensure our travels

care‑free...

The personification of the Moon is most powerful as we poor humans struggle to reach outer space with more than a seat‑belt as we permit defective progress to destroy the glorious journey. (The message of Arthur Miller's poignant drama "A11 My Sons" still rings on deaf ears decades later.)

In The Flowers of Thirst this same realization of the game of deception and/or doubt is

160-glimpses

apparent in Part Two, #26 of "Haunting Melody:"

In the ruins of lonesome hours

she knocks

at the doors of my dreams

and shyly sits

beside me.

Engrossed in chats

we finish cups of tea.

Playing hide and seek

in unique ruins

we empty more cups...

The metaphor is more real and rampant than the simile in the poet's work as he links disparities for a reason with a purpose, so that readers may recognize duality is part of human nature while we continue to relate to the non‑animate.

Yes, love is the answer to the questions‑- why no peace? It's as simple as that, but Confucius say: "Simplicity is the last thing learned. It comes from simple thinking, not from the conscious attempt to be simple."

The author has stated often that "people are people, a big lesson I had to learn. Human beings are the same everywhere in the world. If I just change the names of the people and the cities in my stories, I can place a character in any world setting."

While most are struggling in the Nineties to stress the differences of many cultures, Stephen Gill is professing the opposite, a more complex cognition which the masses have not yet learned in a yearning for separate glorification of each race, each colour, each sex, each age. "We only enrich our culture by borrowing from all cultures," the poet has said. "This makes any society more rational, more friendly, more peaceful, aiding in the eternal promotion of humanhood." Thus, the poet tells us through his work that we are beyond brotherhood and sisterhood as we achieve the forgotten meaning of "neighbourhood," not isolated and separate but one large melting pot where we all appreciate our uniqueness while affirming our similarities.

This is not simple thinking, certainly not simple writing. Perhaps when we all cease to identify ourselves as any one more than "humans," we will have reached that plateau known as Peace. Stephen Gill does this in his myriad books and in every individual poem.

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Rochelle L. Holt, Ph.D., an award-winning author, critic and teacher, has several collections of poems to her credit. She holds a doctorate in English Literature from one of the prestigious universities of the USA.