Jelica Saula: all geographies of one soul

To take the five officially published books by Serbian-Canadian poet
Jelica Saula, born Adamovic (1939), to read them again, to absorb all
contents again, then deal with them within an essay ... is not easy and
it is a difficult plan to achieve. Especially if the essayist knows Jelica,
although not personally, knows her by letters, phone calls...When
someone knows the writer closely, there is a danger the essayist could
become biased, more personal. However, the power of Jelica's poetry,
the power of words, goes far beyond that personal approach. The in-
credible refinement of Jelica's sophisticated observations and reflec-
tions of her soul of what is being observed, thought, felt, experienced
... in one interesting but quiet life, and on two continents. The extra-
ordinarily powerful contents of these books do not allow dealing with
anything personal but metaphysical and universal in timeless coordin-
ates of the sense-mind-soul-spiritual code if the reader has a thinking
mind. Every person has that code. Someone understands and listens to
it and is guided by it, while someone else is yet to discover it...
The two continents of Jelica's curriculum vitae begin on the right
side of the globe, in the beautiful flat land Srem, in Serbia, in Europe.
The first Adamovic family idyllic nest and Srem as subframe of the
Besenovacki Prnjavor village, which houses the oldest Fruška Gora
monastery, has had such a large and tumultuous history that even
some serious countries cannot “boast” about it. World War II was the
culmination of historically great tribulations throughout this country-
side. Adamovic's second nest was formed at small town Ruma, the
geographical heart of Srem. Even before and after the war, the quiet,
pious parents, despite their humble lives, gave the world four daughters
and two sons. Jelica was somewhat different from the other children
with a certain reticence in her quiet thoughts, always writing down
something, or drawing her perceptual and emotional “pictures of the
world” in and around her. Her life led to art studies at the Belgrade
Pedagogical Academy. Also, the same life unfortunately demanded
that these studies come to an end by a steady job in one of the largest
transport companies at Ruma. But that same life lead her older broth-
er, one of her sisters, and also Jelica when she was 32 years old – to
the other, left side of the world map, across the Atlantic, to beautiful
Canada, Ontario, Hamilton.
During her formal involvement in a completely new system of life
and work, Jelica met her life partner Boris Saula. They started with
great matrimonial efforts to build their future. Two similar lives and
almost identical souls lasted together for 37 years. But, as life some-
times can bring misfortune – instead to live their beautiful love –Boris's
long-lasting and severe leukemia with rare improvements had made
their lives filled with dealing with hospitals, doctors, difficult therapies
instead of starting a family. His condition had rare and brief improve-
ments, which were short breaks from their harsh realities ...All those
years, Jelica angelically watched over her husband the way only Serb-
ian women can. But after over twenty years of this struggle, they both
painfully lost the war for life. So, in the sad year of 2007 Boris left, Jelica
stayed. From then until today, Jelica is still on two continents with all
her being, much more in Canada, understandably ... and much less
in their Serbia, Srem, Ruma, also understandably. Jelica's book “Pulse
Leap” – NEA Publishing, Toronto (2008) is a dedication to this magnifi-
cent love, devotion in good and evil... until death breaks them apart.
For all these streams of life on the two continents, except when she
was too small for school, when Jelica could not read, write and paint/
draw, her inseparably loyal companions were – pen and paper. They
were the “guardians of fire” of a perceptive, emotional, spiritual and
soulful life in a myriad of verses, mostly thought-provoking, reflexive
poetry. Although extraordinary also as a prose writer, Jelica prefers to
write poems that are not always in rhyme, although rhymes are not
necessary for a poem to be called a poem. Also, many inspirations in
her creative life have been marked with drawings, paintings, collages
... There are many fine drawings, artfully inspired impressions so un-
usual and innumerable, either finished or not. They are almost equal
in number to her poems. Many solo, group, thematic, etc. exhibitions
are some of the proofs of her artistic talent.
Jelica's books are almost always beautified by her metaphysical
drawings, which can lead a more sensitive reader through some other
journeys “from inside”, in addition to those poems. Also, her imagin-
ation was able to enrich some poems with a non-classical form. She
“rhombuses” or “triangles” them, so the poems are in the form of
proper rhombuses and triangles, or make them differently visual by
starting each line in the poem with the same letter. This has rarely been
one of the other poets’ skills, but in Jelica's case it entices the reader
to experience this impression of poem, and also audio if one ''listens''
to it - follows the rhythm of the verses leading from voice to whisper.
There are several examples in the book “Conversations with silence/
Starry eyed soul”, “Bjelic” doo, 2017., Ruma, half of the book is in Eng-
lish language.
Both of Jelica's works are, in a picturesque way, described – a
silk-knitting of the deepest and finest “weaving” in one's soul about
what would the great Serbian poet Laza Kostic called “'tween wake-
fulness and the dream”. Each of us often have that sense in our soul/
mind. But while Laza's ''dreaming-knitter" is dedicated to his heart,
and God granted all of us others, even ordinary ones with it, can rec-
ognize ourselves in it... so far as Laza's (only) heart was described, in
Jelica's poetry everything inside and around the individual – is core,
whether far, near, or beautiful, or not-beautiful, or cheerful, or sad ...
Whether it be God, the Sun, the Moon, night, day, colors, rain, snow,
tree, leaf, wind, birds, pigeons, children, women, people – red, black,