VOL. 8 NUMBER 1 JUNE 2009

Authors

Keep in touch

VOL. 8 NUMBER 1 JUNE 2009

Volume: VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1 June 2009 (15th Issue)
Edited by: Dr. Santosh Kumar
Binding: Paperback (pp: 224)
ISSN: 0972-6004
Publisher: Cyberwit.net, India
Pub. Date: June 2009
Condition: New
Price: $10

It is a matter of great happiness to release the June 2009 Taj Mahal Review. This issue includes the most spectacular poems by the authors across the world, haiku, book review, short stories, artwork, reflections, literary criticism and much more. My main mission as Editor of TMR is to publish different trends of contemporary writing world-wide by so many voices and so many cultures to promote Peace and Friendship. While selecting artwork and poems, I always keep in mind that great creative artists touch “the hidden nerve” (Tocqueville). In the contemporary postmodern chaos, it would be quite prudent to follow the old tradition of “transcendentalist individualism” (Allen Ginsberg). Jean Paul Sartre aptly says: “Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.”

In this issue I’ve included a number of haiku poets. There is a long controversy if a haiku can be written without the rigid pattern of 5-7-5. Today, many North American haiku poets use 11 English syllables in the form 3-5-3 or 2-3-2 accented beats. Keiko Imaoka rightly comments that rigid structuring in shorter haiku will have the effect of imposing much more stringent rules on English haiku than on Japanese haiku, thereby severely limiting its potential. The most important thing in a perfect haiku is spontaneity and full-throated emotion.

I offer my deep condolence at the sad death of renowned US novelist John Updike at the age of 76. He had been suffering from lung cancer. I often remember Updike’s famous words: “The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education”.

I thank all creative artists included in June 2009 TMR. I’m deeply indebted to these artists for their kind support and subscriptions. Without their cooperation, the publication of this issue was not possible.

SANTOSH KUMAR
Editor

Contributors

ARTWORKS

Albert Russo
Beate Sandor
Bob Veon
Francie Aguilera
Itzhak Ben-Arieh
Joe MacGown
Joseph A. Burgos Jr
Karunesh Kumar Agrawal

REFLECTIONS

H. Elizabeth Smith
Don Prescott
Janet K. Brennan
Vadim Filatov

LITERARY CRITICISM

Joseph S. Spence, Sr.
Vasile Moldovan

SHORT STORIES

Alan M. Danzis
Andrew McIntyre
Christin Rice
Eric Tessier
Floriana Hall
Gary Alexander Azerier
James G. Skinner
Jim Harrington
John Cuetara
John Seeger
Kevin Brown
Kevin Burgess
Nikole Hahn
So. Noël
Stephen Shepherd
Steve Mogg
Steve Morris

POEMS

Alan Catlin
Albert Russo
azSacra zaRathustra
Connie Zhang
Del Senkbeil
Erin Murphy
Fran Shaw
Janet K Brennan
Joseph Aprile
Julie Yi
June Nandy
Katherine K. Walker
Louie levy
Lynda M Ortiz
Magdalena Ball
Marc Carver
Marie Delgado Travis
Maryse Schouella
Moshé Liba
Nancy Gauquier
Oliver Rice
Rena Lee
Rosa M. DelVecchio
Ruth Sabath Rosenthal
Sandra Fowler
Shirley Bolstok
Suzie Palmer

HAIKU

Adelaide B. Shaw
Ban’ya Natsuishi
Dietmar Tauchner
Doris Kasson
John McDonald
Lars Granstrom
Magdalena Dale
Nola Terrassin
Rose Marie Streeter
Santosh Kumar
Sayumi Kamakura
Suzie Palmer
Valentin Nicolitov

TANKA

Andrew Cook-Jolicoeur

GEMS OF THOUGHTS

REVIEWS

A Trilogy by Albert Russo
Literary Review By Moshé Liba

Cracks in the Mirror

AUTHOR INDEX