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