THERE'S NO PARADISE and Other Selected Poems Tanka & Haiku

Life is too real to be believed, yet we must keep dreaming and try to live with a resonance of what we think while we touch various levels of reality--political, social, personal or spiritual-- and be ourselves. Genuine poetry happens as an event to be truthful, clear, courageous and honest to oneself; to be open about things one often tries to conceal. Poetry provides an opportunity for expressing one's intimate moments with the same passion as while talking about the interwoven outer realities. My experience convinces me that we are not limited by what we are, but we are limited by what we are not. Poetry becomes a means to overcome this limitation, and thus, allows us not only to know ourselves but also to expand on what we are. We should remain open to healthy revisions that we can make to our way of thinking, and incorporate new perspectives into our outlook. In other words, we should not let our rigidity destroy our potential, but rather we should evince a forward-looking, tolerant, and open mindset if we wish to create future. I hope the poems in the book would help us traverse the boundaries of hesitation to see the joy of fulfilment.