Touchstone of Time

<p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Anjali Sahoo has proven herself a very talented poet. Her poems in Touchstone of Time are full of emotions ranging from lightness to sorrow. They are introspective imaginative and often evocative symbolic and very appealing. There were a number of lines I especially liked a lot. For example: The darkness inside/ The hill of melancholy/You are tunneling through/ May be/The before-math/Of the blinding sunlight/Eagerly on waiting... (Poem-The Darkness Inside) and Don't be a prisoner/In your past's prison/Dear self!/Be a Warden of your present/And/A Jailor of your future/Having keys in your own hands! (Poem-Don't be a Prisoner).</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Richard Tomlin</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Redneck Poet Murfreesboro Tennessee 37129 US</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Anjali Sahoo's poetic journey is an incredible climb towards perfection in search of truth. Her poetry is image-oriented. Images can evoke visual and metaphorical assertions which are spectacularly evident in many of her poems. Although there is hardly a poet who does not have imagination in poetry Anjali's imagination has certain qualities that set her apart from other poets. She often gives us imagery that is not only visual but also kinetic. The rainbow if imagined as a man takes birth and grows old soon (Poem- The Rainbow). The poetic muse who usually appears as an angel manifests as a bird in her poem (Poem- Or Else). Her poetry is largely introspective and evocative. Anjali is certainly one of the most influential poets whose poetry can be your companion in solitude. Amid conflicts in the present worlds Indian ancient wisdom finds new applicability in her poetry. She examines human life with all its contradictions and the complications from the combined point of view of East and West. Rightly Touchstone of Time is a book that can be kept in your bedroom to meditate and it can also be kept in every library for the younger generation to understand the higher values of life.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Prof. (Dr.) Clement S. Lourdes</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Director</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Directorate of Culture and Cultural Relations</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Pondicherry University Kalapet Puducherry- 605014</span></p>