We go about our lives seeing but not looking, hearing but not listening. Umasankars poetical gift is looking for beauty, or some meaning, in everything he sees. Life Through a Prism is a broad collection of his poetry in which he considers the wonder of nature and both the excitement and reality of college life. Some of Umasankars earliest saved works are from his engineering college days. Just like any other young man, his days were filled with excitement, activity, trust, letdown, melancholy, and new hope. He captures these feelings eloquently in poems like First Love, An Evening in College and Canvas, among others. His harmonic verses on nature and beauty include Beautiful Morning and Gods World, where he considers the beauty and magnificence of the artistry of Gods creation. This love for natural beauty has led him onto the path of picture poems. Captured by some allure in photographs, Umasankar has a whole segment of poetry that describes those photographs in words more colorful than the actual pictures, like The Lone Chili Pepper and Water of Life. True to the title of the book, in Life Through a Prism, thoughts enter Umasankars mind like white light through a prism and then form a beautiful rainbow in the minds of the readers he touches.