Unity in Diversity

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 poem. The book is synonymous with the idea of world peace which is the dire need of the hour.

The title of the book Across The Sea is extremely symbolic and apt hence forty-one poets as representative of twenty seven countries take a great initiative and contribute to this poetry collection . The anthology has been 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 stands for the idea of 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 to equality beyond all the borders.

In his work 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." Even James Kirkup's poem 'No Men are Foreign' is one of the upright exemplar to disseminate value of universal brotherhood, non-violence and equality which help in creating a harmonious environment of deep concord in the world. He tries to make everyone remember that no man is a stranger and no country is a foreign country.

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 blood curdling sufferings through the poems.

The book with a flagship of unity spreads the 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 this, all these poems enshrined in this anthology act as a remedy for mental and psychological anxieties of techno-advanced competitive era. They are the perfect antidotes against illness of the modern day man

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 an indelible effect on the mind of readers. At places we are reminded of poets like Maya Angelou, John Donne, Rabindranath Tagore, P. B. Shelley, James Kirkup and Amrita Pritam who have voiced similar concerns in their poetic pieces. Moreover, the usage of aesthetic phrases, appropriate metophors, various figurative speeches and fierce and powerful language by the skilled poets makes it unique and extraordinary assemblage of lyrics. Certainly unputdownable!

(The article is written

by Prof Shiv Sethi)