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SOME POEMS: R.K.SINGH 1/28/2008 7:49:22 PM
POEMS: R.K. SINGH, Dhanbad, India
1
BLISS THROUGH DEATH
The body that died
and the body that quivered
with menstruation
is me in dream fear and hope
shake love to light the flame
stir the time static
for decades crippled impulses
fleshed as my daughter
touch the psychic memory:
I re-live the bliss through death
2
THE HELL INCITES
Discourse on heaven
and after-life pleasures
is bumptious bullying
to live without meaning
midst searches for the lost
so inciting is
the hell of cyberworld
they forget to pray
and multiply their pain
corroding consciousness
but it doesn’t matter
whining in sleep or whinging
is part of crazy
nature in race with itself
and god a convenience
3
DYING LIGHT
Shrieking in the sea
my knotted self
the lines on the palms
spiders’ network
gleaming with corpses
that have no face
yet their funeral
mirrors the eyes
waving with dying light
4
I DO NOT QUESTION
I do not question the sun
adding wings to wounded giants
or depressing them to crouch down
the memory’s lanes or erect
new walls with odours of hate
and love cagily crumpling
the shades between earth and sky
I do not question the moon
skirting the cherished wishes
on dreamy edges of winter
unforcing climax with sticky
fingers splintering sensations
or skittish little riddles
frosting the heart at sixty
I love light without ashes
of wood or fuming desires
in the morass of frustration
I sing psalms people understand
through lines on palms or relics
of private rains after lunch
I live time shaking sun and moon
5
DON’T CONDEMN ME
It’s still linked but I don’t understand
or don’t want to understand because
I am too much with me and worry
about her dying libido and my
own shrinking sex amidst salsa chill
Bihu fever, Vishu rituals
ringing emptiness day and night shake
the age-wrapped youth for single-edge play
in forked flame carve image of heaven
to challenge the jealous God undo
sins of races flowing in my blood:
I love Him through the bodies He made
but they don’t understand redemption
in churning and parting of the sea
they don’t rejoice the flames of henna
on her palms nor let the lily bloom
in the valleys use the clefts and cliffs
to deface beauty and spike voices
don’t condemn me if I am not white
the water still flows in my river
6
TIME TO BREAK OFF
How long can I grow without roots
or make way for what is approaching
in digital noises I can’t be
inheritor of arrant cowards
smelling the arse on their fingers
nor can I be the priest checking
the burnt tongues to test criminals
stiff with cold I’m tired of animal
struggle for survival and last rites
in candle light digging cursed
treasure for night songs others croon
I can’t decipher names in smoke
nor forget the faces emerging
from the matrix of tremors
that are islands to shackle
feet in silence close the cycle
of the waters that feed the sea
I feel the lumps hinder and pain
now it’s time to break off and bury
the ash in the earth and plant afresh
foliage for rains or sun to nurse
a destiny I could take pride in
RAM KRISHNA SINGH, born 31 December 1950 in Varanasi (India), M.A. (English, 1972, Banaras Hindu University) and Ph.D. (English, 1981, Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi), is a widely published Indian English poet, reviewer, and critic of international repute. He has authored over 150 academic articles, 160 book reviews and 32 books, including 13 poetry collections, notable among them are:
My Silence and Other Selected Poems: 1974-1994 (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1996), Above the Earth’s Green (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1997), Every Stone Drop Pebble (New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1999 , jointly with Catherine Mair and Patricia Prime), Cover to Cover (New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 2002, jointly with U.S. Bahri), Pacem in Terris (Trento, Italy: Edizioni Universum, 2003, in English and Italian, jointly with Myriam Pierri and Giovanni Campisi), The River Returns (Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2006), No Moist Secrets and Elements Clack Silence (www.lulu.com, 2004), For a World Peace (Rocca di Caprileone: Edizioni Universum, 2005, jointly with Renza Agnelli and Donae G. Papastratou); R.K.SINGH – poems (ebook, PoemHunter.com, December 2006, http://poemhunter.com/r-k-singh/poet-79587); and R.K.SINGH: Night’s Rumbling and Other Poems, Volume one (on CD, poetrypoem.com, 12 May 2007). R.K.Singh’s poems and collections can also be accessed on his blog, http://profrksingh.blogspot.com and http://rksingh.blogspot.com
A member of several national and international organizations, Dr Singh hs a recipient of many awards and honours including Litt.D. (Hon.) of the World Academy of Arts and Culture, Taiwan (1984), Michael Madhusudan Award, Calcutta (1994), Ritsumeikan University Peace Museum Award, Kyto `1999, and Certificate of Honour and Prize in Kumamoto International Kusamamoto Haiku Competition, Japan, 2000. His biobibliography appears in over 30 reference publications from the USA, the UK , India and elsewhere. A book on his poetry, New Indian English Poetry: An Alternative Voice: R.K.Singh (ed: I.K.Sharma, 2004) which appeared from Book Enclave, Jaipur, is a comprehensive presentation of his creativity since the 1970s.
Dr R.K.Singh is currently Professor and Head, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad 826004, India. Email: profrksingh.yahoo.com
