New Utopia [Paperback]
Dr. Santosh Kumar has successfully shown that he has both a good understanding of the classical form and literary history of the haiku as an art form, and more importantly possesses the literary experience, expertise, sensitivity and dexterity required to update and further develop this classical art form in his own way thus both ensnaring and enticing the reader to join him in his own contemporary pas de deux, expressive of the wonders and dilemmas of today's social, spiritual and psychological experience. This resonance in the reader/audience, together with the «magic» of boundless possibilities, is essential to the success and the survival of the artist's expression as a «living, and ever changing» organism. I would encourage readers of this gem of a book to put away their musical scores and mathematical-literary formulas, to momentarily forget their guardianship of the more restrictive regulations regarding classical haiku-writing .. and even to attempt to avoid the perils of getting "stuck" in the search for the perfect «haiku moment», as that could possibly inhibit one's ability to recognize (and co-create) the essence of the poem. Furthermore, I would encourage the reader to try to see all poems in this book as being integral and connected parts of the entire artistic work. Although these individual works function quite well on their own, there is even greater "music" to be heard in discovering the silent transitions from haiku to haiku .. and experiencing the work in its totality: a comprehensive mural which rivals the frescoes of the greatest known and un-named painters from several centuries ago: yes, a haunting image dating from the earliest cave-dweller paintings on record to the Renaissance and Classical periods to Post Modern expressionism. Adam Donaldson Powell
About the Author
Dr. Santosh Kumar (b. 1946) is a poet, short-story writer and an editor from UP India; DPhil in English; Chief Editor of an international literary journal Taj Mahal Review; several awards; member of World Poets Society (W.P.S.); member of World Haiku Association, Japan; published poetry in Indian Verse by Young Poets (1980), World Poetry (1995 & 1996), The Fabric of A Vision (2001), The Still Horizon (2002), The Golden Wings (2002), Voyages (2003), Symphonies (2003), New Pegasus (2004), Explorers (2004), Dwan (USA), Promise (Purple Rose Publications,USA), TMR 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007). He has also edited sixteen World Poetry Anthologies, and four books of World s Great Short Stories. He is also the author of a collection of poems entitled Helicon (Cyberwit, 2006, India, ISBN 81-901366-8-2). He is able to achieve masterly poetic effects full of a singular beauty and rhythmical artistry in his new collection New Utopia. 
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