Interviews

A.  I am an Indo/Canadian poet and writer. My name is Stephen Gill and I write for world peace. I believe that  peace  is the way to  the holistic healing of humankind.  

2. Do you think within the time-frame that you've occupied such space, you have done enough (fulfilled) from what's been expected of you? 

A. According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, enough means “adequate for the want or need.”  Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the  English Language defines enough in the same words. The Oxford Dictionary says that enough means “as many or as much as somebody needs or wants.”

            Considering what I expect from  myself and what the world needs,  I am  not able to do enough because of some impediments and lack of direction. I have discussed some of these impediments in my prefaces and also in interviews.

            What’s been expected of me, I can say that the harvest is in a colossal growth.   The world needs many Stephen Gills to do the work. It is beyond my mental and physical limitations to achieve what I have been wanting to achieve.

            I  do not see my robins (poems) flying as high, nobly and gracefully as I wish them to do,  though I give my passionate care that is based on the solidity  of dedication. I eat my food and sleep for my energy and save every possible minute to give to my robins. I often miss opportunities to socialize and family get-togethers, as well as TV shows to give time to them. This has been the pattern of my life year after year. Still I am behind my horizon. Most of my time was taken and is still taken to a lesser extent by removing the impediments of my early childhood and what comes with the family heritage.  It needs more  adjustments and sacrifices on my part.  I feel as  a child who is flying a kite that faces unfriendly winds and that needs the constant maneuvering of fingers.

3. "Writing is a painful process.  To bring out something that is within is not that easy". Why isn't it easy to bring out that something that's within and why do you say writing is painful hence joyful? 

A. To bring out something that  is within  is  abstract. It is  in the form of ideas, experiences and notions. I call them the god within. To be able to paint a copy of  this god within, an artist needs skills. A poet uses his imagination and the skills of the language to use in different ways to paint the god within.

            Language is the product of the intellect that helps to paint  the intangible tangibly, using  the tool of comparison buttressed by symbols. In a way, every word that we use is a symbol. Take the case of water. The word water is not the liquid we need to quench our thirst. It is a symbol. No matter how hard we try, the word water cannot quench our thirst.  

            When a poet says that “my love is a red, red rose” he is  trying to compare two things. This symbol or metaphor cannot stand for the actual object of beauty. The same  can be applied to the case of a potter. The actual pot is within the potter, who tries to give it a  shape.  The potter may try different ways to copy what is within. It depends on his education, training, dedication and several other factors to make the resemblance closer. Still the copy bears only a resemblance of the  exact object.  

            It is a painful process of trials and errors for a poet to  paint indelible pictures hung within the walls of the poet’s blood. The process of this painting bears similarities with Carl Gustav Jung’s  theory of the individuation process that is the integration between the conscious and unconscious features of the inner self. The story does not end here.

            A poet constantly faces the demons of dry spells  and depression because of his or her limitations to bring out what is within.  It is a painful reality of a poet’s life. Just the awareness of the survival of this god within the blood is  not enough. As a skillful fisher, a dedicated poet is constantly  searching for spots, ways and tools to ensnare the creatures of the water.

            The god within, abstract, can manifest itself through unconscious means of dreams, visions, hallucinations and so on. On the other hand, the means of a poet are deliberate  to form a dialogue with the within. Formation of this dialogue or the  mastering of the tools  is painful—a hard struggle  even to catch glimpses of this reality.  This painting is a copy because it is manifested through symbols-- conscious means of a poet. To master and try these conscious means are painful.

            These means become more painful when a dedicated poet  paints  in an individual way. His writing is tight without the use of cliché.  The process causes several  wrong turns before finding the right one. It is often  a frustrating process. It needs extraordinary patience, deep thinking, wider studies and more explorations. I have written about this sweating in search for fresh symbols in my prefaces of the collections of my poems.

            It  becomes more painful when an artist tries to find time to paint while facing the demons of daily life. Turning ones back to the pleasures is itself painful. It requires sacrifices, adjustments and a total unshaken dedication that becomes an obsession even at a young age when the worldly pleasure are difficult to keep at a distance. Struggle and suffering are painful.  

            Poetry needs dedication and dedication is a preoccupation that becomes an obsession and obsessions cause intense emotional and economic loss and where there is loss there is pain and suffering.  This painful process of a dedicated poet is like the painful process of a mother. A poet gives birth to poems that are full of life. I call them robins. When these robins are properly fed and nourished, their feathers become stronger to be able to fly independently in the borderless skies of freedom and beauty. This creation is an incarnation of the god within.  Just giving birth is not enough. To take care of them and let them grow to be independent is also painful.   There is pain in longing or desire as Buddha has said. Suffering and desire go together. One way to get rid of the suffering is to get rid of desire. A dedicated  being will not let the desire go away because that desire is his or her obsession. When a poet appears to be doing nothing he is still involved with his desire.  When Gautama Buddha sat under a tree for days and nights without eating and drinking, he was enlightened. He came to know that desire is responsible for suffering. In another story, a Zen master was walking with his disciples along a river. A young disciple began to pester him with a question that was how to be enlightened. At one point the master grabbed the young disciple and held him under the water. The disciple began to throw his hands and legs in desperation to save himself. But the master held him under the water for a while. The disciple tried to free himself, but could not. When he felt that he was about to be drowned and die, the Zen master let him go. He came to the surface and began to breathe.

            The master asked him about the thoughts he had when he was under the water. He said that first he had many. They disappeared at once when he was about to be drowned. He had only one longing at that time and that was  for air. The master replied that was his enlightenment.

            I will call this enlightenment a passion or complete dedication or obsession. Obsession is the extreme of desire. When someone desires something with intensity, that desire become a passion that causes suffering. When the passion  becomes the goal of a poet, there is suffering or pains and in those  pains there is liberation and birth.

            Passion is from the Greek word “pascho” that means to suffer. The Latin word “passio” refers to Christ’s mortal suffering.  For me poetry is a passion and passion is an extreme kind of attachment and attachment is suffering.

            When a  poet is hit with the bug of  this passion, his or her suffering changes into the emotions of self-satisfaction  in that attainment. To paint the god within in one form or another needs energy and energy is never destroyed. It transforms. It assumes the shape of a poem and the poem is self-satisfaction, also called liberation or joy or peace.

            A deep attachment or obsession itself is responsible for pains. Dedicated poets are  attached to their  creative process. They are as drowning individuals who long for air. As long as such poets are  drowned in the waters of creativity, they suffer, longing for the oxygen to complete the process. There is joy for them in hope and in the anticipation of completion. That joy provides energy to move forward to finish their  works. It is like the suffering of the birthing of a new life.

            When someone asked Buddha after his enlightenment what he gained from it, he said he instead lost. He lost his ignorance and dreams for the sake of enlightenment that gave him bliss.  There is also pain in physical exercise, but also joy. In the same way there is joy in the creative process while going through the pains of the exercise of the creative process to give birth to a being that is poetry.

4. How do you differentiate between 'good' and 'bad poetry'? 

A. Instead of dividing poetry into good and bad, I will say the poetry that moves me and the poetry that moves me not. Poetry is beauty and I have criteria to create  a beautiful poem. My creative creations are my robins and I want them to be stronger and graceful.  

            I have set some rules for myself to nourish them.  I apply these rules to any poetry that I read. If any poem does not honor these rules,  I consider it bad.  I have discussed these rules in my prefaces, interviews and also in some articles. These rules are for myself and I believe these rules will prove helpful to other beginning poets.

5. You mentioned that the 20th century was the second Renaissance for poetry. What do you see or think the 21st century will produce and centuries following suit?

A. The renaissance of poetry will flower further in the 21^st century because of the digital technology that has made it easier to bring out even unpalatable dishes to a much wider population. Some will admire those unpalatable dishes for one reason or the other. It will not produce many prominent poets but it would certainly produce a number of poets.  In this jungle of numbers,  it would be difficult to know who is worthy and who is not. Those who are aware of the tools of the digital technology shall win for a while, in spite of the fact they are not good poets. This feast of festival of poetry will keep flourishing.                                                 

            At the same time there will be serious poets of passion who will keep working like others who have worked in every age and nation in the past. Some will be like the seeds that fall on the rocky land and do not grow. Some seeds will fall under bushes and those bushes will not let them grow. Some will grow in the open air where visitors seldom step. It will take time, but eventually they will come to the attention of serious visitors after some time.

6. You mentioned that "Poetry is an art and you do not try to break rules of the art for the sake of propagation of your views". Could you please tell us what these rules in poetry are?

A. I write about peace and peace-related subjects. To convey my message in poetry, I have drafted some rules. I call my poems robins, as I have mentioned somewhere also. I prepare food for them with the following four truths. My four basic truths are like the four hands of the Indian mythological goddess  Sarswati who is considered consort of Brahma, the god of creation. These four basic truths on which the theory of my poetry is based  can also be called the four sisters of my creation.  Listed below,  I have discussed them  in different forms  in my prefaces:

(1) Spirit is the first truth.  Spirit is  an immaterial force within a human that gives life to the body. One can call it dedication or passion or an obsession for writing. It includes editing to give life to my poetry. Editing is the outcome of passion or obsession.

            I test my poetry in the furnace of editing to get rid of anything that is dross.  As a  poet I  try not to be tired of editing to take out extra and redundant words, though I do it in prose also in a lesser extent.   

            While editing,  I try to find out if there was a clear reason for writing that piece. In other words, there should be one main message or theme in  the piece. A lack of clarity about the theme or message shows that the poet is not clear in the mind. I believe that a poem should revolve around one idea at a time.

            All these attempts are to make the spirit more energetic.

(2) The second basic truth is imagery because it is the highest form of metaphor.  It is a tool that  helps a poet to represent   the god within.

(3) The third basic truth helps me to get rid of anything that is stale.  I am an enemy of  overused expressions that have lost their freshness.  It is artistic to use an expression or imagery for the first time, but its subsequent use shows the laziness and ignorance of the poet.

(4) The function of the fourth basic truth is to differentiate poetry from prose. A poem should be reasonably more tight and compact than the prose. I take out unnecessary, redundant words and details. I believe that economy of expression is more important in a poem than in prose because it lends grace.

7. Your type of spiritual liberation (Giving birth to thoughts and feelings). Is there some sort of parallel inter-relations to perspiration or simply a creative expression? 

A. To give birth to something is liberation from suffering. Before the birth takes place there is desire or longing to give birth. This extreme of desire is suffering. To get rid of this desire is to give birth and this is liberation. It is an experience of joy. I have discussed it in detail elsewhere.   

8. Your views on the World Government Unity formation which somehow banishes the platform and stands of the UN government which according to you, promotes vicious and manipulative ideologies by corrupt philosophers. What do you verdict should be implemented in that regard and should the World Government Unity form soon, what would you advice should first be prioritised continent to continent? 

A. I fully support the United Nations Organization and shall keep supporting it.  There is no other international organization at present that is more representative and more respectable than the UN is. It is in the interest of democratic values and also in the interest of the safety of the earth to support the UN.  

            The UN is on the way to be a democratic parliament of the nations of the world. I want this parliament (UN) to be more democratic, representative of their nations, and more powerful.  At present, the veto  power of five nations stands in the way of justice or rule by the majority. Just one nation that has a veto power can nullify the decision of the majority for personal or other reasons. It has happened in the past and will continue happening, unless something is done to balance this power of the five nations.

            Except peace keeping forces that depend on the mercy of nations, the UN has no force of its own to implement its decisions. Also it should have one or several courts that have  more power to implement their  decisions.

            The main goal of the parliament of nations would be to outlaw wars between and among nations. The one way is to order and convince nations to do away with their military powers. Nations should be allowed to keep a police force to maintain law and order situations within their borders, something along the lines of the provinces of every country. The military is at the command of the central governments. In the same way the nations will become like provinces to maintain law and order situations within their lands. The military will be at the command of the central government, called the parliament of the nations that will be the democratically elected world government. It will be an association of partners to keep peace in the world.

            To form this parliament, its representatives should be directly elected by the nations they will represent.

            I believe that democracy is a journey. There are ways and ways to improve democracy. Every democratic nation has political parties who have their own platform  to improve the working of democracy within the framework of the democratic laws. Intellectuals and international political parties will work peacefully and lawfully to work for the betterment of the world parliament.

            I believe that a democracy usually does not prepare itself for war and to attack their neighbours. One way to abolish the danger of wars is to form a democratic world government. It is not impossible because now the world has means to achieve it. The world has moved towards that direction after the formation of a parliament of Europe that was considered a utopian thought. It has its own currency now. It was also considered a utopian thought to unite 

the states and form the USA. Blueprints for the formation and also all the means are there. All that the world needs is a firm belief that unless there is a democratically elected world government, there will be danger of the annihilation of human civilization.

            Wars have not solved problems. Billions and trillions of dollars that are wasted by nations on preparing for wars and on actual wars, can be invested in schools, colleges, health facilities, betterment of children, to grow more food and to bring in an era of more health, understanding and prosperity.

            In the last several decades, world military expenditures have increased by many times. At the same time, nuclear weapons have considerably surpassed the explosive power of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.  The sophistication and destructiveness of both nuclear and conventional weapons have reached levels unparalleled in history. While the world is in constant economic crisis and millions of citizens are starving and suffering from man-made diseases, the military trade continues to thrive.  Countries are selling weapons for economic gains and prestige. Countries are buying  destructive engines to boost their national pride. Armament has become a status, an indication of power and authority in the world.

            Peace makers have been warning the world against the catastrophic results of armament. They advocate arms reduction. In practice, all the countries are seeking peace through armament that is an exercise in futility. This has set a vicious circle to break. International control of some deadly weapons have proved fruitless and inoperative. There have been many agreements in many forms in the past and all of them have failed to slow down the arms race.

            In the dangerous world, when so many sovereign nations accept no any authority above them, this arms race is not stoppable. Moreover, these sovereign national governments have been violating human rights brutally. Some nations are open to arbitrary arrests, executions without trials according to international standards, and tortures. Even courts and legal systems under these governments have become the puppet of the dictators or the fanatics. These oppressions and executions have led to mass exodus, particularly of the minorities, creating refugee problems. Suppression of human rights and mass exodus of the minorities have  happened in several nations.  

            Under this situation, the United Nations Organization is a ray of hope, athough its decision are not strictly binding.  In the first place, it was not formed to exercise its authority over other nations or to interpret law and enforce it on others. Now the time has come for this organization to be reformed according to the changing situations. One way is to democratize and federalize it, empowering it with the authority to enforce its decisions.

9. You mention that when you write, ‘a process takes place hence you always review your material from a third person's perspective to criticise yourself. In this context, would you say you write for yourself or  the public?

A. There is no point in getting my poetry published if I write for myself. I can burn my poems after their creation. But that is not the case. My creations are my children. I care for them as a mother does after giving birth to her offsprings. I take care of them when someone publishes them. I will see how my children are being treated by publishers. I try to get involved with publishing at as many phases as possible.

            I write for people. That is why I get them published and have them widely distributed for sharing. Before publishing or sharing, I review them to present the best to  the public. I do it to the best of my abilities. I am a human and possess weaknesses as other human beings do. I acknowledge that I am not perfect. Only the Divine Creator is perfect. I try to be as close as

possible to perfection. That is why I edit.

10. With all due respect, are you trustworthy?

A. Yes, I am.

11. With all due respect, how important is your name?

A.  My name is my identity. What is important is peace. I believe that peace can be achieved only through peaceful means. I want this peace for myself, for my children and children’s children and for the whole world to be able to enjoy their life in a meaningful way.

12. What message would you like to convey to literary patrons and everyone reading this? 

A. Patrons provide encouragement and usually financial assistance, because artists are engaged in a profession that needs dedication and is not profitable from the point of money. William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson enjoyed the support of patrons.

            I will ask patrons to continue patronizing artists because without their fireplace  these artists will not receive the warmth that is needed for their growth. Artists always needed patrons and they need them even now. In early days, rulers and aristocrats patronized them. In Indian history, King Harsha Vardhan was a writer and  patronized writers. In Greece, patronage was exercised by the Tyrants of Corinth. Poets, including Pindar were patronized by courts. Towards the end of the fifth century B.C. Archelaus, the king of Macedon, invited Euripides to his court. In the Hellenistic Age, the kings of Egypt became great supporters of all arts. Rome patronized Greek artists, including Virgil, and Horace.  Much of the religious art in historical churches in the form of paintings and sculpture was supported by religious groups.

            Supporters are needed even more now because of the globalization and leisure that is the outcome of the progress of science and technology. However, supporters have changed. Instead of courts, aristocrats, churches, temples and kings, there are charitable organizations and governments at all levels to do this work.

            As I have mentioned, the role of patrons or supporters has been assumed now also by governments. Governments under democracies have arts councils to help  poets and other artists. Art is life and beauty. The patrons who support artists in any form support life itself. Their role provides oxygen.

            Individuals still occupy an important place as patrons.

13. It’s been an honour and a privilege communicating with you. Best wishes in your endeavors.

A. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to share my views with readers.