Book Review  by Aju Mukhopadhyay    

 

 

Window to Heaven. Maria Cristina Azcona. Pubblished by

Cyberwit.Net, 4/2B, L. I.G., Govindpur Colony, Allahabad-211004, U.P.

Paper Back. pp. 86. Price-Rs.130

 

 

 

 

Maria Cristina Azcona of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a bilingual poet and writer, writing in her Mother Tongue Spanish and English. A Universal Peace Ambassador, she is founder organizer of some and associated with many social and literary bodies.

     She does not write for the sake of writing, as art for art’s sake, but considers literature as a modifying agent in the vile world. She advocates Peace Education through literature, believes poetry to be the mouthpiece of the peace lovers. When Pope John Paul-2 visited Argentina, she was with him, who inspired her to write peace poems. Though she was panicked with the possibility of terrorism spreading since the 11^th September strike at the Twin Tower, New York in 2001, the world has been experiencing the shock for centuries at different parts of the globe, somewhere USA being the perpetrators of similar crime which may be of a different variety.

     Love is a bridge between terrorism and peace and miracle is a thread to accomplish it. With 68 poems Window to Heaven is divided into four parts. First is Fashionable World which finds different aspects of abnormality and terror in human society. The second is Love, third is Miracle and the fourth part has poems under the title, Universal Peace.

     Let us see how she paints the terror world through her poems.

‘Muddy human souls, cruel crowds, empty bowls, hands,

Smoke and fuel that provoke war.

. . . .

‘Abrupt, interrupt, disrupt, sudden, rushed . . .

‘No bread, no brotherhood, no breath. . .’ (Shady City)

‘A pocket, a rocket, a bomb, a nail, a rail,

A soul, a foot, a tooth, the smell.

That horrible smell.

This is Hell.’  (Terrorist Attack)

 

     A child is denied its birth because ‘A high-class lady has denied it.’ (The Abortion)

‘A suicide bomber says good-bye without having said hello.

. . . .

‘Another baby dies. Nobody says hello.’

     The poet cries at the end of the poem, ‘Let us believe a little more in life!’ (War and Terrorism)

     Radiant Night is a beautiful Nature poem.

‘Calmly, sweetly, moon bathes into clear water. . .

Fishes encircle her with speedy tails’

                                   But man breaks the calm. Soon we hear,

‘Suddenly a noise breaks the harmony

And airplanes start to unfurl the wings. . .

A war is beginning and sadly,

Someone will die before this eve,’

     In Two Wolves she tries to find the cause of war,

‘Thirsty for the supremacy, both have a similar ferocity.’

     In Noise she finds the warring situation-

‘Noise clashes, rushes, roars. . . .

We are now just noisy tools,

. . . .

Tools, tools, tools, tools, tools.’

‘The night at moonlight is a quiet one.

. . . .

‘A shadow invades the scene falling into the pond

Circles of water around a body.’

        Hence she surmises a little before, ‘I can breath my insecurity.’ (Daisies and Swan)

     Feverish signals in diverse languages, scientific prodigies, robots and windy wares                  seduce the world of youngsters.

‘We are each day a little more far away

from knowing each other really well,

. . . .

‘While a simple bird with a simple sound echoed

Reaches the heart of somebody in love.’

                                                                                             (The Age of Communication)

‘Make up wraps her wrinkled face, the new age.

Bewitched lovely face.

Her carrel earrings dance on her step,

While merrily she rocks on narrow tall shoes.’

. . . .

‘She accepts partners one after the other. . . ‘

     Tired, she retires but at the weekend

goes to her son to play

her Grandma’s role with the grand child (Sweet Bonbon Grandma). Grandma seems to represent the modern age.  This is a world where uneasy calm resides. Babies disappear suddenly. They are abused.

‘A monkey is looking to its face

into mirror. . . 

Its face is turning red in shame.’ (Fashionable  World)

     Does the monkey represent humanity?

But the poet finds a solution-

‘If each one dedicates a bit of will power meanings,

To reach insight of his own passionate feelings

He will surely find steadiness

The condition that will allow him to reach happiness.’ (Equilibrium)

     Window to Heaven will be found opened to a person who is fearless.

‘Window to heaven, your wonderful world is mine,

While my fantasies are made of my profound fear.’

                                                                                                 (Window to Heaven)

     Love is a bridge between war and peace, a sweet reverie, something that life clings on to enjoy, to live to the brim. Love is pure gold of the Sun, pure blue of the ocean to the poet (Golden Love and Blue Love).

‘Love is all we have

While we enjoy this journey

                                  Also while we die’                     (Haiku-1)

     ‘Take off your mask’, she demands. ‘Don’t be cold hearted/ Take the risk and love me again/ As we always did.’ (Falling in love)

     Drenched in pure love she feels,

‘Love is the most wonderful sensation,

A perfume that reaches the bottom of rationality’

  (The Meaning of Love)

     And-                           ‘The universe is a unique verse

                                          Laser lights over you and me.

                                          Infinity in a fractal of eternity.’ (Eternal Love)

     Seeing infinity in a fraction of eternity is a vision like infinity in the palm of one’s hand by William Blake.

‘Rounded tears are like pearls of wisdom. . .

war is pale in front of

                                       orange love.’                            (Orange Love)

     Love is finally directed towards the Lord or the Divine, Jesus Christ for Maria.

‘Finally an awareness of the Lord

                         fills the empty edifice of soul’      (Angel’s Voice)

     So all the few poems in the third part under the title ‘Miracle’ came out of her adoration for Jesus Christ-

‘and we will be your lambs forever,

my beautiful baby king.

                                                Jesus Christ will be your name’                        (Baby King)

‘Red roses are the perfect gift.

. . . .

They are drops of sacred blood

                                           From the body of Jesus Christ.’                      (Red Roses)

     At the fourth and last part of the book titled ‘Universal Peace’, we come to a synthesis of her thought process directed towards a very valid purpose through love and adoration, attempting to snatch the world out from the grips of the terrorists to place it under the umbrage of peace.

     There are certain ways and manners to reach the peace, she feels they are education and sticking to truth, behaving properly with others. Peace is mostly a dream to her to be realized. Her ideas have been repeated in quite some poems. Children have been given first priority to prepare them for a peaceful world.

‘A kind word

. . . .

‘A nice thought

. . . .

‘A beautiful smile

. . . .

                                                  ‘And peace will come.’                                  (A kind word)

‘Peace needs hope to grow.

. . . .

‘The North and the South

The west, the East and the rest

To be only one.’

                                                                                                   (Peace and Hope)

‘It is oasis for the thirsty desert.

It is the light for the blind.

                                                 Love for the lonely ones.’                                       (Hope)

     Further ways to reach the Peace is-

                                       ‘To love each other more’                         (Peace will come)

‘Sing and Pray and you will achieve

consciousness of a world

which is yet a place to live.’

                                                                         (A Peace to live)

     To make our dream true she advises-

‘Let us think a little more,

Not the day after. . .

                                     But the day before.’                (The Day Before)

     Her diction is simple. Symbolism or any complication has not barred the way to reach her heart quickly. Though tormented by the ways of the present ugly world, the poet soon reaches the heart of the discerning reader by her ardent hope for a better world through sympathy and love. Her hope becomes the hope of others. Nature is beautiful, peaceful and alluring, love is frank like her devotion for the Son of God. All these are short prose poems but rhythm and rhyme often accompany them.

.© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2007ajum24@yahoo.co.in