Everything in this book is written to unravel the nuances of meaning in the original poetry and artwork of Azsacra Zarathustra. I ask you to read these critical essays about Azsacra’s philosophy as revealed in his innovative haiku. This critical book aims to present for general readers, haiku poets and researchers, an evaluation of Azsacra’s poetry. Is he a dreamer? Is he a moralist? Like Shakespeare, he leaves others to draw the moral, as he avoids to give any ‘palpable design’ in his several collections of poetry. 

Iris Murdoch remarks that philosophy aimed at clarification, and literature was interested in mystification. Keats in one of his letters said: “We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us—and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket. Poetry should be great & unobtrusive, a thing which enters one’s soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself but with its subject. How beautiful are the retired flowers! how would they lose their beauty were they to throng into the highway crying out, ‘admire me I am a violet! dote upon me I am a primrose!” Azsacra’s poetry is not to be missed by anyone who likes originality. We ought to make sure that everyone is aware of Azsacra’s philosophy revealed in this breakthrough book including the critical essays by some of the greatest contemporary writers. 

Neal Brown very rightly says: “German painter Bauer’s modernism seems to be that of an esoteric ‘spiritual world’ — with the optimism of a cheerfully happy Paul Klee which is then ruined by a drunk Francis Bacon or nightmarish Max Ernst. In this way, Bauer piles meanings onto meanings, in an epic battle between aesthetic order and nihilism.” No doubt, Azsacra too in his frank, no-non-sense presentation of ‘esoteric spiritual world’ unravels the deeper mysteries of life.   

The contributors are Adam Donaldson Powell, Akshat “The Reflection” Sharma, Anil CS Rao, Floriana Hall, Hidenori Hiruta, Janet K. Brennan, Joseph S. Spence, Sr., Karunesh Kumar Agrawal, Marc Carver, María Cristina Azcona, ‘Sullivan’... The Poet, Moshé Liba, Salvatore Buttaci, Sana Rafiq, Sonnet Mondal, Suzie Palmer and Vadim Filatov. I am sincerely grateful to these authors. I am deeply obliged to them for their help and cooperation in bringing out this critical work.

No critical book like this about Azsacra could be written without their cooperation. I have tried to reveal that Azsacra’s poetry is like Zen meditation. It is a pure quest amidst an impressive landscape of “sheer empty wildness”. It is the quest for the magical world of void, nothingness and positive nihilism. I trust that this comprehensive critical book about Azsacra will be extremely useful for the scholars and poets across the globe.  

The truth is that all great poetry acts in a divine and mysterious manner. The greatest Romantic poet Shelley aptly remarks: 

“A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why. The poems of Homer and his contemporaries were the delight of infant Greece; they were the elements of that social system which is the column upon which all succeeding civilization has reposed”. 

The above remarks by Shelley are of great help to understand the depth of Azsacra’s poetry. Azsacra always writes ‘to cheer his own solitude’. 

This is my 4th book of literary criticism about a full-scale study of authors. The earlier three critical studies The Poetic Achievement of Ban’ya Natsuishi, The Haiku of Sayumi Kamakura: A Critical Study and Adam Donaldson Powell: the Making of a Poet became quite popular, and are indispensable to understand these renowned authors. I hope this book also about Azsacra’s work will be greatly useful to researchers and poets across the globe.