KREATIV SA PUBLICATION 2009: Margaret I. Gibson Bates: Complete -- 101 Sonnets

Margaret I. Gibson Bates, aka MargaretG on Allpoetry, is a refined and mature voice in contemporary poetry, with the timelessness of the Old Masters. Congratulations, Margaret, on a most beautiful collection of sonnets.

Should you wish to order a copy of Margaret's book of poetry, please contact her directly.

ANNOUNCMENT -- NEW PUBLICATION:

Complete -- 101 Sonnets by Margaret I. Gibson Bates

Soft cover, 97 pages

Published by
KREATIV
PO Box 4404
GEORGE EAST
6539
SOUTH AFRICA

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2009 Margaret I. Gibson Bates

First Edition First Print 2009
ISBN 978-0-620-43557-4

Text design and Electro-set Book Antiqua 12 pt: Myra Lochner KREATIV
Cover design: Myra Lochner KREATIV
Cover photo and art: Margaret I. Gibson Bates
Back Cover photo: Lubomyr Markevych
Preparation master copy: Org Naudé KREATIV
Printing and Binding: Blitsdruk GEORGE S.A.
________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

Foreword

This book is a collection of sonnets which I wrote to reconcile
thoughts and beliefs, to grow through grief to a deeper understanding
of my roots and branches. Many of them start as a vent of emotion
and end with a philosophical couplet. Over several years, the pain
and bitterness changed to resignation and then acceptance. There is
a thread of Christian faith which grows through study of other
religions to perceive a less personal but more compassionate God.
The book takes its title from the last line of the last sonnet, I am
complete. No one is created finished; there is a process whereby we
become what we are, which has a clear beginning and no end. Yet,
in another sense, we are always complete, as seed, shoot, plant, bud
and flower; we may gaze on our fallen petals without awareness of
the fruit to come, or the promise of new flowers. Roses and rosebushes
appear many times as metaphors for myself, and images of
flowers often relate to people as well.

At the time I wrote them, I was ashamed of some of my feelings
and regressions. They were not the best of me; that is, the most
kind, thoughtful, and forgiving. The strongest expressions of pain
were projections, which I did not identify as myself at all. This was
most of the healing process: recognizing my own feelings which
had been repressed as invalid, antisocial or just bad. In the spiritual
journey into our own hearts, we must see and not flinch from the
shadow which we have preferred to hate in others, and we must
not accept the rules of people who have used our feelings to
manipulate us. The test is to remember slights and injuries and give
them their due sorrow and acceptance, instead of forgetting them
again. Hiding unpleasant truth does not give us rest; we are troubled
by things we won’t remember. I took two years to descend to my
metaphorical basement and sweep out all the chambers; I felt that I
could not ascend until there was nothing left unknown. I was always
conscious that even though someone had said God would reject
me, God does not refuse anyone who seeks him.

Why sonnets in the 21st century? I reach back to childhood for the
reasons, hearing my father recite Robert Service from memory,
nonsense poems, songs, and hymns, all of which have strong
rhyme and meter. The steady pace of iambic pentameter has its own
beauty set in blank verse, but added to regular rhymes, I felt the
effect of creating something timeless. The sonnet form has a history
in English literature stretching back almost five centuries, when
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, experimented in
English with the Italian form of Petrarch. There are several versions
called after their inventors: Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton.
The classical sonnet has fourteen lines, and the rhyme schemes are
dictated by form. The form is strictly applied by some modern poets;
others allow variations of rhymes, meter, and number of lines.
Initially I followed form exactly; then relaxed some of the rules as
needed. The limitations of meter, rhyme and length, plus the added
requirements of volta (reversal) or concluding couplet, forced me to
organise thought and emotion. In addition, the structure of sonnet
form allowed me to practise and develop the poetic tools of
metaphor, imagery and sound.

Only four of the 101 sonnets have been published elsewhere:

Garden Wall and Release: Illuminations Vol. 1, Issue 1, January 2005
(the journal of poetic-voices.com);
Laughter and Love and Content: Illuminations Vol. 1, Issue 2,
September 2005.

I wish to recognize the help and encouragement given to me as a
budding sonneteer on the website http://allpoetry.com. I offer my
sincere gratitude to Bobbie Bell, Del Warren Livingston, Ron
Wiseman, Gennelle St. George, Terry Tenhunen, Hugh Wyles and
Keith Stewart Tait. They were faithful readers, good friends and
exacting critics. When something was not up to standard they would
point out where it could be improved. They prodded gently at the
perfectionist in me, and often a rewrite was many times better than
the original. I am also grateful to my friends in poetry who have
stood by me all these years: Karen Harris, Sea Stephenson and Joan
Benecke, and my recent treasure, Myra Lochner. My book would not
be complete without my gratitude to my husband, Peter, and sons,
Fred and Geoffrey, who were with me through its creation.

Margaret I. Gibson Bates
Kyiv
Ukraine
March 18, 2009
_________________________
ABOUT COMPLETE

Margaret I. Gibson Bates shares in writing what she learns of self
(Introspections, p. 52). Reading the titles of her poems, in itself
becomes a poem of awareness, stirring the reader to recognition of
profound emotional content. Written in the graceful flow of the
timeless sonnet, addressing both reason and emotion, the poet is
convinced that the world is ever just as we perceive/perception always
shows what we believe (Belief , p. 35).

The poet outlines the paradox of feelings, illuminated by a focused
orientation to her inner world, in her relationship with her beloved:
I hate my loving and my hating you (Unforgiving Heart, p. 6).
Margaret contemplates the time that she was seemingly calm, but
in fact she avoided questions that could lead to strife (Stormclouds,
p. 55), instead of allowing turmoil to lead to growth, for a more
stable calm after the storm.

In perceptions of our own world, we may expand in awareness of
the greater cosmic picture, finding our home within emotional
contentedness:

A human can be gentle as a dove –
we make a spot of heaven where we love.
(A Spot of Heaven, p. 37)

Gradually we become more focused on the wonderment of the
spiritual realm; particles of heaven become manifest in our
everyday life. We remain human, however, especially in times of
loss and of mourning – the latter an important phase not to be
ignored: (we) fill/the hours we cried with work and play/but first we
mourn, and then we may (On Mourning, p. 44). But even in our close
relationships and intimacies, we may learn to accept and to be
secure in the knowing that we are forever separate:

Beloved, shall we always be like this:
at peace together and secure apart?
(Content, p. 12)

Her sensitive soul reflects on the little sound that will betray/the start
of tears, before the throat can sob (Quiet, p. 57). In quietness we may
hear not only the sorrow of others, but also the very heartbreak
underlying our own discomfort – small indicators we often tend to
overlook. We often suppress grief, not realizing that a present loss …
leads to future gain (We May Safely Grieve, p. 58).

Soon the importance of poetry as a tool in healing becomes
evident. The sonneteer defines:

poetry is found in trough and peak;
begins with thought, distils disturbed emotions,
and weighs the phrases truth would choose to speak.
(On Poetry, p. 61)

We are not the product of the apologies made by others, or even
their respect, and although poetry may be therapy, the healing
process is mysterious:

In time, by nature, grief expressed will heal,
but how it goes is no one’s to define.
(Condolences, p. 66)

The poet arrives at the conclusion that her heart and head have
thought and they agree/that love is both a feeling and a deed (Love is
Kind, p. 9). She finds consolation in the following realization:
We stumble through the trials of life; its blows will give us pain, but
here’s the source of courage: as we love, we rise again.
(Consolation, p. 49)

This book is a manual in understanding emotional turmoil and its
place in the cosmic whole. In gaining insight in one’s own pain, one
may be freed to become what one is destined to be, not jeopardized
by one’s own burdens or those of others. Then everything makes
sense and life becomes a more joyous journey. In Margaret’s own
words: It took me forty years or more to see/that every place he threw the
seed was me (The Sower, p. 67); I am the rose, and gardener, and earth (A
Rose, p. 71); the message of my life is simply this: reveal yourself, thereby
reveal your bliss (The Message of my Life, p. 79).

This volume of poetry is an important addition to endopathy,
KREATIV’s meta-therapeutic approach to healing: to allow others
to step into your shoes, and vice versa; to relate to shared pain in
the most compassionate way and to structure discoveries in refined
and meaningful verses – thereby presenting the product of learning
and understanding as a precious and timeless treasure, part of a
process of universal growth.

Myra Lochner
George
SOUTH AFRICA
March 18, 2009