Tag Archives: Dr Stephen Gill

World Poetry Celebrates Dr. Stephen Gill from Canada!

10407994_10152965612954115_2292654902904667514_nAriadne’s Notes:  The World Poetry Café Radio Show with producer Ariadne Sawyer and Co host Neall Ryon along with super operator Victor  welcomed  WPCI Advisor Dr. Stephen Gill from Cornwall, Ontario in an information packed show about sonnets. 

*** CLICK HERE for the radio link!


Bharat-2 (3)Stephen Gill, self-exiled poet and novelist who writes mostly about peace, was born in Sialkot, now in Pakistan. When India was divided in 1947, his parents moved to New Delhi, the capital of India, to be in a safer area. The family never saw good days after the division of India. Remorseless brutalities on both sides of the border hardened the hearts of both the Hindus and Muslims, resulting in an intense atmosphere also for Christians. Stephen Gill began to find ways to run away from the murderous religious rage to grow as a creative writer in a fearless atmosphere. He says it was a miracle to receive a teacher’s position in Ethiopia. After teaching for three years, he migrated to England before settling in Canada in the early sixties.

In Canada, he kept finding ways to deepen the field of his writing that had been his passion all his life. He began to realize that careful revisions shape a good literature.

He has authored now more than twenty books, including novels, literary criticism, and collections of poems and his poetry and prose have appeared in more than one thousand publications. He writes mostly in English. Once in a while, he writes poetry in Urdu, Hindi and Panjabi languages. He has also written and published book reviews and research papers on writers. Some of his Urdu/Hindi poems have been sung with music by prominent singers of Pakistan and India in three albums. Twelve critical studies have been edited and released on his works and more are being  edited to be released shortly.

He has received recognitions, including The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal from Canada; and Empowered Peace Poet Award from World Poetry Canada, headquartered in British Columbia. Stephen Gill, Poet Laureate of Ansted University and an Adjunct Professor of EAU, has appeared in prestigious national and international reference books. Indira Kala Sangit University (IKSU) officially established the Centre for Stephen Gill Studies on April 21, 2012 in an impressive gathering of intellectuals. The gathering was chaired by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr. Mandvi Singh. She called it a historical move of the university to establish this centre for scholars to pursue their higher studies on Stephen Gill.

He has been a judge for poetry competitions, and evaluates dissertations of English Literature for doctoral students of universities in India to buy food to feed his passion. He has been the subject of numerous literary essays, books and doctoral studies. He is also honorary editor/advisor to several publications, and has edited publications. Stephen Gill is former president of Vesta Publications Ltd.; the Canadian Authors Association (the Cornwall, Ont. Branch); a national vice president of the World Federalists of Canada; the Multicultural Council of Stormont and Dundas; chief delegate to represent the World University for Canada; the Christian Cultural Association of South Asians,  Cochair of Downtown Improvement Business Area (DBIA) of Cornwall, Ont. Canada; and a director of the Children’s Aid Society of the United Counties of SD&G (Canada).

Stephen Gill has not said much about his early life, because that is to reincarnate the silent wrenching pains, he says. He however has painted some gruesome realities of these silent wrenching pains in the prefaces of his collections of poems, including Songs Before Shrine, and Shrine as well as in the introduction to his modern epic on terrorism The Flame. He has touched those gruesome realities also in his interviews and depicted here and there in his novel The Coexistence. It is the bitterness of the water of the early life that runs in the arteries of Stephen Gill’s writings. That bitterness in different forms often emerge in his dreams even now. He does not want to see that bitterness happening again in his life.

A self-exiled poet/fiction writer, Stephen Gill also says he is a Trishanku, a Hindu mythological character. He still hears the sound of spring in the stillness of the autumn.

Stephen Gill says that a sonnet is a lyrical poem on love. It has roots in Italy.  Its  pioneer Francesco Petrarch was not able to find a poetic form to express his love for Laura. The form that he uses is of 14 lines in a concentrated structure with a definite rhyming scheme. His form became popular with Elizabethan poets, including William Shakespeare. Elizabethan sonnets are of fourteen lines, divided into two parts, the first part of 8 lines and the second part of six lines.  William Shakespeare modified  his  format slightly.   Later, Gerard Manly Hopkins, a Jesuit, among Victorians, introduces some changes, but the subject remains unchanged. Modern writers attempt sonnets also in blank verse.

Stephen Gill’s sonnets of twelve lines each are based, as are traditional sonnets, on love. Some words from the beginning of the first line form the heading.  In his collection of his own sonnets Love is the singer of life, he changes  the format of the sonnet to suit his purpose.  In other words, he change bottles, but the wine remains the same.  His sonnets are aligned to the left and right sides in the same way as in prose.  He  believes love is a singer of life. He  also believes that love and peace walk side by side and where there is no love there is sickness in every shape and where there is sickness there is no peace– neither personal nor national. It is in the interest of every human to follow the path of love for personal health and governments are  expected  to maintain  peace to nourish a meaningful life and prosperity.   Dr. Gill says that literary critics find elements in his poems that bring them close to Sufi poetry which developed as a religious phenomenon around one thousand years ago.  Sufism existed in every age in some form as love and wisdom existed as did also the messengers of God. He adds that love as its subject and also lyricism remain unchanged. Because of these two elements, the sonnet is called an English ghazal. Sonnet comes from the Italian word sonata that means a little song. Ghazal means conversation with women and was originated in Persia and is popular in India and Pakistan mainly with Urdu poets. It is also lyrical and is often sung or presented in melody. He has loosened some strict structural parts to make his sonnets flexible to meet his requirements. However love and lyrical elements remain unloosened. He believes that to find the lyrical aspect a poem should be read out loud. If the poem does not sound lyrical when read out loud, then it is definitely not a sonnet.

To him lyricism is the expression of deep emotions and feelings in artistic ways. This is to make the expression appear beautiful or more beautiful. The beauty may be in the character or in the style. Any object, such as a flower or the moon, can be lyrical. At the same time, the object can appear lyrical to one person and non-lyrical to another. A poem is subjective as far as its beauty is concerned. A flower, such as rose, may look beautiful to one and not to another.

In the delicious blazing sun I am deluged with your quiet reverie. Your mysterious presence is the rustle in nature’s healthy vibrations in every color and every shape which remind me of the words we exchanged. From the reeds in the garden of the calm in your sights I prepare a pipe to play a thoughtful euphony in your praise. I wish to furbish the altar of my fantasies with the flower of your rich blush of rose. I am free from physical confines when we are confidentially so close.  “

 

 

World Poetry Canada International Advisors and Directors!

 

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World Poetry Canada International Advisors and Directors. More to come…

They will be participating on the World Poetry 24 hour around the World Peace Poetathon, September 21st and also in the Fifth World Poetry Canada International Peace and Human Rights Festival 2016.

Advisors:
 Dr. Hadda Sendoo, Mongolia
Yoshifumi Sakura, Japan
Dr. Stephen Gill, India and Canada
Elaine Woo, Canada
Wanda Kehewin , First Nations, Canada
Mamta Agarwal, India
Adisa AJA Andwele, Barbados and US
Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, Canada.

Directors:
Alaha Ahrar, Afghanistan and US.
Kwame Yirenkyi, Ghana and Canada
Michael Kwaku Kesse Somuah. Ghana
Sharif Saedi, Afghanistan
Oswald Okaitei , Ghana
Olajuwon Timileyin, Nigeria
Mutiu Olawuyi, Gambia
Musa Musavi, Afghanistan
 Caroline C. Nazareno, Philippines.

*Posted with their permission.

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 Festival 2014.

World Poetry Presents a Message and a Poem From Dr. Stephen Gill!

Ariadne’s Notes: We welcome Dr. Stephen Gill, winner of numerous awards and crusader for peace,  who has sent a special poem for the New Year which will be read on the World Poetry Café radio show on December 23rd, 9-10 pm on CFRO, 100.5 F.M. Link will be posted on the 24th.

Featured Poet

Featured Poet

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World P0etry Empowered Poet Award winner. Stephen Gill.

Stephen Gill, Poet Laureate of Ansted University, has authored more than twenty books, including collections of poems, fiction and literary criticism. Once in a while, he writes poetry in Urdu, Hindi, and Panjabi. Some of these poems have been composed and performed by prominent singers in three albums, titled Aman (peace), Aman Ki Rah (way to peace), and Kholo Kholo (open open). His works have appeared in more than five hundred publications. Stephen Gill strongly believes in a democratically elected world government and peace through peaceful means. He works as a freelance English/Urdu interpreter and examines doctoral dissertations for universities of India to feed his passion and commitment to write for global peace. He was born in Panjab. CRITICAL STUDIES: Nine critical studies have appeared, including Discovering Stephen Gill Ed. Dr. Agarwal (AuthorsPress, India); Stephen Gill & His Works by Dr. George Hines (AuthorsPress, India); Poetic Corpus of Stephen Gill by Dr. Sudhir Arora (Sarup & Sons, India); The FlameUnmasked (research papers on his epic The Flame) edited by Dr. Sudhir Arora (Prakash Books, India)

“HAPPY X’MAS AND WISHES FOR PEACE FOR THE YEAR 2015

I wish my friends my best wishes for the  New Year, although it is not easy to celebrate the emergence  of 2015 in the true spirit of peace because of the  obvious  clash  of cultures. It is a  time to reflect for a  meaningful dawn  to save the citizens of the global village from further torture in the name of God  who is the embodiment of peace. Peace through  peaceful means is the  way to produce a symphony of human hearts and  the way to survive and prosper in the complex world of today.” Dr. Stephen Gill.

ON THE NEW YEAR

What then
if it is a New Year
This day is the same
as any other day of last week
even last year.

The wilful ghosts of sorrow
have not dissolved
nor have the fogs of ignorance
which float over the cold tombs.

Rather
they have grown in strength
in the gloom of violence.

If nights were replaced by days
just by thinking,
the corners of darkness
would have been lit by now.

Eaters of stale crumbs
in the mornings
should have been welcomed
by the appetizing smells
of fresh and warm foods.

The hours of suffering
would have been reduced,
joys lasted longer
and lives changed.

When this sun does not surge
it does not matter
what year or date it is.

Just by the murmurs of the clock
history does not alter,
life will not wear
another mantle
only calendars become new.

Some cards are traded
feasts are arranged.
This is not a change.

Stephen Gill –Canada (C)