RAM KRISHNA SINGH

Collects all of my published poetry books. Also provides an uptodate view of my poetry, especially haiku and tanka.

: Name: Prof.R.K. Singh

Ram Krishna Singh is a university professor whose main fields of interest consist of Indian English writing, especially poetry, and English for Specific Purposes, especially for science and technology. He was born on 31 December 1950 in Varanasi, India. Apart from a BA earned in 1970, he gained his MA in English Literature from Banaras Hindu University in 1972 and Ph D from Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi, in 1981. He also obtained a Diploma in Russian in 1972. Dr Singh started his career in journalism, as a Compilation Officer in the District Gazetteers Department, Lucknow, 1973, and a Journalist with the Press Trust of India, New Delhi, 1973-74. Changing to teaching he became a Lecturer at the Royal Bhutan Polytechnic, Deothang, Bhutan, 1974-76. Joining the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad as a Lecturer from 1976-83, he then rose to Assistant Professor in 1983 and full Professor and Head of the Institute’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences since 1993 to 2011. He is now Professor of English (HAG).

A reviewer, critic and contemporary poet who writes in Indian English, Dr. Singh is the author of more than 160 research articles and 175 book reviews. He has published 39 books, including: Savitri : A Spiritual Epic (Criticism, 1984); My Silence (poems, 1985); Sound and Silence (edited articles on Krishna Srinivas, 1986); Indian English Writing : 1981-1985 : Experiments with Expression (ed., 1987, rept. 1991); Using English in Science and Technology (textbook, 1988, rev. and rept, 2000); Recent Indian English Poets : Expressions and Beliefs (ed. 1992); Two Poets: R.K. Singh (I DO NOT QUESTION) Ujjal Singh Bahri (THE GRAMMAR OF MY LIFE) (poems, 1994); General English Practice (textbook, 1995); Anger in Action : Explorations of Anger in Indian Writing in English (ed.,1997); My Silence and Other Selected Poems : 1974-1994 (poems, 1996); Above the Earth’s Green (poems, 1997); Psychic Knot : Search for Tolerance in Indian English Fiction (ed., 1998); New Zealand Literature : Some Recent Trends (ed.,1998); Every Stone Drop Pebble (haiku, 1999); Multiple-Choice General English for UPSC Competitive Exams (textbook, 2001); Cover to Cover (poems, 2002). Pacem in Terris ( haiku, English and Italian, 2003), Communication : Grammar and Composition ( textbook, 2003), Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri : Essays on Love, Life and Death ( Critical articles, 2005), Teaching English for Specific Purposes : An Evolving Experience ( Research articles and review essays, 2005), Voices of the Present: Critical Essays on Some Indian English Poets (2006), The River Returns (tanka and haiku collection, 2006), English as a Second Language: Experience into Essays (ed. research articles, 2007), English Language Teaching: Some Aspects Recollected (ed. research articles, 2008), Sexless Solitude and Other Poems (2009), Mechanics of Research Writing (2010), Sense and Silence: Collected Poems (2010), New and Selected Poems Tanka and Haiku (2012), and I Am No Jesus and Other Selected Poems, Tanka and Haiku (2014). His works have been anthologized in about 160 publications, while his editorial activities extend to include guest-editing of Language Forum, 1986, 1995, and Creative Forum, 1991, 1997, 1998, besides being co-editor of the latter publication from 1987-90, General Editor of Creative Forum New Poets Series, and service on the editorial boards of Canopy, Indian Book Chronicle, Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Reflections, Titiksha, International Journal of Translation, Poetcrit, Impressions of Eternity (ie), and SlugFest. He has evaluated about 50 PhD theses from various universities. He has also edited the ISM Newsletter for about five years.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2017

HIBISCUS

the black idol waits
for worshippers to visit:
unbloomed hibiscus

--R.K.Singh

BACKYARD

filthy rags
leaves fade in the backyard
the clay's drying up

--R.K.Singh

Friday, February 10, 2017

I CAN'T LIVE

Dreams puzzling
smallness of waking
I can't live
the child's circumcision
promise of happiness

--R.K.Singh

Sunday, February 05, 2017

GLORY

Each seeks to excel
in the glory of crimes:
trouble itself now cure

--R.K.Singh

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Accident

Crack in the mine:
a traceless tipper driver
wailing father

R K Singh

Monday, November 21, 2016

SENSEXUAL: A TANKA SEQUENCE

On the roof top
she waits for her man with
moon cake and lantern:
a flash of silver showers
on the mist-shrouded figure

A tress of hair
she drops over the mole
on her forehead
thinking it's ugly and
hides her own gazelle eyes

She stoops low
to the bottom shelf
in black jeans
her curves flattering and
red lace groping her hips

The beads of sweat
on her breasts do not touch
her years or face
in candle light her shadow
is more restrained than my thought

It's not ageing
but eternal delight:
you under me
smooth belly, nude necking
slow stroking parting flesh

I lover her undress
the light with eyes that spring
passion with kisses
she leaves her name again
for my breath to pass through

She undresses in
dim light perfumes her body
fills room with herself:
we hit the hay together
drowning in each other

The chilly twilight--
tossing leaves and branches
tell of the wind
before sunrise she and I
cross-legged, cling to each other

Making love
she tastes the salt upon
my shoulder
in the afternoon I pound
like the surf into her flesh

The wind lifts
her curved nudity hidden
in the water curtain:
I touch the strings that whisper
love in each falling drop

--R K Singh

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Poems composed in Dalapchand

1
Poverty sneaks
through her wet undergarment
on the terrace

she talks to herself cursing
the day she was born and left
to negotiate truths
of gender, sex and manhood

in the middle class
one room apartment
physical rigmarole
buries sick delight
hope of wellness
fast and Sunday Mass

her dispirited heart
sinks into dusk
and darkness eats
into her light

2

A black ant
pulling the broken wing
of a butterfly
in the portico
of Bodyguard House
on hilltop
the scattered cloud overhead
paying tribute

3

Behind the hill the drill goes on
the shooting unmindful of traffic
and children returning from school
for peace beyond quiet Sikkim
the politicians in-flight
with rhetoric of denial for freedom
to Gurkhalis living on the edge
I don't know how to cheer the mind of time
or walk in the stillness of land
shrouded in haze and struggling sun

4

No one knows
when the sun will be clouded
or when it will rain
in Ramdhura
women and weather match

the swagger in party
and the day long hangover
is no poetry:

I feel the foggy rise
from the hills below
and smile at my granddaughter
saying, "It's stormy
let's get in"

5

Helpless like a child
I cry but there's no mother--
my pain turns monstrous
on a hilly bed I lie
aged burden but who cares

6

How strange we always
seek to stay high above sky

mountains and rivers
obey rules of gravity
in sync with nature

I'm in awe of mysteries
too complex to understand

now back to Bangalore
again I suffer people
stuck, threatened by movement

and life evades as ever

--R K Singh

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

PEACE IN SIN

I thought I'd locate you
in the dark, lonely street
but I myself got lost

Mind's mazy prompts
shocked me into nakedness
I never perceived

The misleading sun
the unreal reflections
the dumb show

Dazzle my eyes
shades of terror in alleys
smell of treachery

At the crossroads
the selfish gene's tarots
of my random choices

In dim blue light
smiling breasts invite
autumn breeze

I chuckle to myself
hearing raps of inverse world
and peace in sin

July 25 ,2016

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