A poetic soul, altruistic, global peace ambassador and Professor of English, Shalini Yadav whose spirit-appeasing habit of crossing hyphenated borders of realism-surrealism, led her to edit Across the Seas, an anthology of poems of iridescent star poets who are also into the practice of crossing the borders and bridging the waters as ambassador of peace and harmony via their verses. Her former cherished poetry collections, Till the End of Her Subsistence (2013) and Kinship With You (2014) have been emblematic for unheard expressions of women being liberated from the shackles. In Floating Haiku (2015), she outpoured pellucid feelings of her flights in an attire of majestic nature woven with human sentiments. As a poet she has journeyed ahead like a drifter to soar high and swim deep with mystic and material conflict of inner psyche hoping that her readers will also be stirred rhythmically with swings of blues and bliss.
The title is extremely symbolic and apt hence forty-one poets as representative of twenty seven countries took initiative and contributed to the poetry collection Across the Seas. The collection is recently released and got published with White Falcon Publishing House with an objective to ensure a sense of unity and promote global citizenship; harmonious and peaceful cosmos, crossing the waters and bridging the gaps through their distinct, groovy and artistic ink.
Across the Seas is an omnibus of lucid, picturesque and sensible poetic pieces stirring the hearts and souls. The volume is symbolic as a universe of myriad diversities or a galaxy full of shimmering stars due to the representation of numerous themes to increase sensitivity including war, peace, harmony, brotherhood, nature, mystery, spirituality, humanity and right of equality beyond all borders.
In his article titled ‘A Hymn For All Mankind: Where The Mind Is Without Fear’, Badrul Hasan says-
“The verse continues to exhort people—particularly in conflict zones across the world—to seek fearless truth, progressive thoughts and actions, and to stand up and see the world as one, undivided by borders or “narrow domestic walls.” (Hasan)
Even James Kirkup’s poem ‘No Men are Foreign’ is one of the upright exemplar to teach value of universal brotherhood, non-violence and equality to create a harmonious environment in the world. He tried to make everyone remember that no man is a stranger and no country is a foreign country by the lines-
“Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.” (Kirkup)
How the poet James Kirkup gives evidence of the unity of man how all the people of the world are nurtured equally by the natural resources like ‘sun and air and water’ and they all are “fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d”, in the same way, the poetess Anna Keiko through her poems raises her voice saying ‘No borders, no fences,/ no gunfire, no bombing…’ in her poem ‘Dove of Peace’. Silenced voices are given voices to express their sufferings through the poems.
The book with a flagship of unity spreads a message that our life style, caste, race, culture, gender, economic or literacy status may vary ‘across the seas’ but we all are same as we all have same type of body with in which one’s ‘self’ resides and heart breathes. Besides, poems prove to be a remedy for mental and psychological anxieties of techno-advanced competitive era as ‘antidotes against illness’.
No doubt the collection is a kind of Pandora with lexis full of love, audacity, respect and trust for unanimous synchronization and enlivening sensitivity in the aura. The poems are highly concrete, versatile, rich in imagery and sensitive to human heart with individualistic approach and would surely create a filmic effect on the mind of readers to enjoy the lyrical bounty. At places the reminds us poets like Maya Angelou, John Donne, Rabindranath Tagore, P. B. Shelley, James Kirkup and Amrita Pritam etc. Moreover, the usage of aesthetic phrases, appropriate metophors, various figurative speeches and fierce and powerful language by skilled poets makes it unique and extraordinary assemblage of lyrics.
