Review of Kemp, Penn.  Poem for Peace in Many Voices.  London: Pendas, 2002.

 

This poetic and publishing undertaking, for it is that indeed, speaks to the power of people’s voices when they are united in strength against war.  Placed within and between the various translations of Penn Kemp’s poem, “Poem for Peace in Two Voices,” there are shots of Bernice Vincent’s painting, “Memory Keepers,” a painting meant to commemorate the lost of the 14 women who were murdered in the Montreal Massacre on December 6, 1989. 

 

Kemp’s original poem, centred on the invocation of “Now calm come,” is like a mantra, an invocation to encourage people to gather their thoughts and voices, from the inside---from the silences within hearts, souls, and minds—and spread those intentions outwards so that calm and peace ripple outwards.  In this collection, with the help of Gavin Stairs as publisher, Kemp has succeeded in gathering voices and languages that would not always find a place together.  In doing so, she has proven that peace is universal, that the desire we all (as humans) share is one which can conquer despair and destruction.  Perhaps this is the most uplifting thing of all.

 

An excellent collection, beautiful to view and hold; a stunning gathering of different languages, all in the hope that differences might diminish to find common ground in a search for peace in our world. 

                                                 

Kim Fahner

Kim Fahner teaches English at Marymount Academy in Sudbury. She is a poet, having published You Must Imagine The Cold Here (Your Scrivener Press, 1997) and braille on water (Penumbra Press, 2001). In the late 1990s, she was shortlisted for the Air Canada/CAA Award for Most Promising Canadian Writer Under 30.  As well, she has had a number of poems and short stories published in various Canadian journals over the years, with her most recent publication being a story in Bluffs: Northeastern Ontario Stories from the Edge (Your Scrivener Press, 2006).  She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and had the great pleasure of studying with Mr. Timothy Findley as her mentor, via the Humber School for Writers, in the late 1990s.  Also in the 1990s, she published a poetry journal called like lemmings: poetry over the edge with fellow Sudbury writer, Melanie Marttila.