Poems and Micropoems by Ram Krishna Singh
Reviewed
by
Prof.
(Dr.) Sagar Mal Gupta
Poems
and Micropoems | Poetry | Ram Krishna Singh |
Southern Arizona
Press, 2023, pp. 78, $7.24/
INR 475
ISBN:
978-1960038081
Prof. R.K Singh, an
internationally renowned poet, is a doyen among the poets of haiku and tanka
writers. He has published thirty poetry books including a dozen haiku and tanka
collections in the last forty years. He has received generous support from poet
friends belonging to Romania, Japan, Taiwan, Syria, Iran, Croatia, China, and a
few others. His poetry has been translated into different languages, which is
quite creditable.
His awards and honours include Ritsumeikan
University Peace Museum Award, Kyoto 1999, Certificate of Honour and Nyuusen
Prize, Kumamoto, 2000 and 2008. It is an honour not only for Prof. Singh but
for the whole country that he was honoured for Japanese poetry by Japanese
experts in the art of haiku and tanka poetry.
His recent poetry collections that have drawn international attention are Growing Within/Desăvârşire lăuntrică (English/Romanian,
2017), Tainted With
Prayers/Contaminado con oraciones (English/Spanish, 2019), Silencio: Blanca Desconfianza: Silence: White Distrust (Spanish/English,
Kindle, 2021), A Lone Sparrow:Haiku Poems (English/Arabic,
2021), Against The Waves: Selected Poems (2021), Covid-19 And Surge of Silence/Kovid-19 Hem Sessízlík Tolkȋnȋ (English/Tatar,
2021), 白濁: SILENCE: A WHITE DISTRUST (English/Japanese, 2022), Changing
Seasons: Collected Tanka and Haiku (English/Arabic, 2021), Lantern In The Sky: Selected Haiku
(English/French, 2022), SHE: Haiku
Celebrating Woman That Makes Man Complete (Arabic Haiku Club, 2022), and Drifty Silence (2023).
The book Poems and Micropoems contains
thirty-five regular poems, eighty haiku and forty-four tanka. It is not
possible to review all these in this article but I will review some of them. It
would not be out of place to start the review with a favourite poem of Prof.
R.K. Singh in which he expresses a sense of disillusionment and a resignation
to the fact that there is no escape from the less pleasant aspects of life:
The frog in mirror
slips by damp towel
cold sets in slippy
hands
rain flows on windows
black water crawls
down
like diseased
reptiles
why scrub the smelly
underbellies
there’s no paradise
(Poem #29. Sense and Silence: Collected Poems , pp.
70-71)
Professor Singh writes on
different topics, mostly on abstract emotions and nature. Out of his three
types of poetry in this collection, I shall take up haiku first. Haiku is a
short poem which uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience
of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition. It consists
of three lines, the first line having 5 syllables, the second seven syllables,
and the third five syllables. But many contemporary poets sometimes take
liberty with this syllable structure.
In the analysis of haiku in this
book, I shall take up only six haiku and comment on them, which will indicate
the richness of his remaining haiku. Consider the following haiku:
they watch from the
street
our embrace at the
window
sneak into
liquor (p. 51)
This haiku creates a sense of
intimacy and privacy suggesting a sense of voyeurism or intrusion. A vivid
image is created by detail, window and liquor. Look at the following haiku:
people trust
what utopia looks
like:
lighted banks of
Saryu (p. 58)
This haiku highlights human
nature and a human desire for a perfect world. The mention of ‘lighted bank of
Saryu’ paints a vivid picture of a beautiful and peaceful place which could
represent the ideal world that people yearn for. The use of the word ‘trust’
suggests that people have faith in the vision of utopia and see it as something
to attempt for. Let us take another haiku:
on his epitaph:
he died protesting
land tax
on his grave (p.58)
The person referred to in this
haiku was actively engaged in an organised effort to challenge the land tax.
The epitaph suggests that protest is shown as part of their identity. The
epitaph commemorates their activism.
Summer days are full of warmth,
activity and the pleasures of being close to nature. The vivid image of this is
mentioned in this haiku:
mid- June morning-
the gardener’s muddy
fingers
scratch the itching
scalp (p. 49)
The first line of the following
haiku shows a luxurious bathroom. The presence of beetles in a clean bathroom
is because of neglect or a lack of maintenance. The third line creates a mood
of stillness and gloominess. The bathroom may not be well ventilated. The text
of the haiku shows a sense of contrast and unease:
one with granite tub
a beetle in the
bathroom-
silence of
dampness (p. 49)
The following haiku
threatening rain
dark clouds hang over
still trees-
smelly
clothesline (p. 49)
effectively captures the mood of
an approaching storm and the way it affects our senses and surroundings. It
depicts a vivid image of an impending storm. The imagery of ‘dark clouds’
hanging over a clothesline have started to smell a mood of unease.
The question arises why I took up
the discussion of haiku first. I would like to quote a statement from Prof.
R.K. Singh’s interview with Khalil A
Jomma (WEC: 13:1, March 2023,
92-99). Prof. Singh states:
“I view haiku writing as
something innately spiritual, with sensuousness as the key factor; looking
outside to communicate the inside; expressing the unity of human being with all
existence; imagining life in all its hues- from physical lust to divine
sensation… ( p. 93).
He further says that haiku has a
lot of possibilities if the poet has a sense of proportion or harmony, the
expressive side of language or rhythm which permeates the words (p.94).
Let us now discuss a few tanka,
another distinguished poetic form of Japanese poetry. A tanka is an ancient
Japanese form of poetry that is categorised by the number of syllable in each
line, totalling thirty-one syllables. Tanka translates as ‘short song’ and is
better known in its five line 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form. There are
forty four tanka poems in this collection.
late night-
not many drink
at home
wait for the end
the bed sinks the
body (p.62)
This refers to two different
times of a day, the morning and late night,
people are active and awake, perhaps getting ready for the day. The late
night moves very slowly and fewer people are drinking and waiting for the night
to end. The phrase ‘drink for the end’ is significant, suggesting that the
people are trapped in the cycle of drinking and waiting for something to
happen.
what poem can brew
on faces hidden
behind
veils misty eyes say
all I can’t imagine
in
haiku with season
word (p. 62)
It looks like a fragmented
description of some sort of a scene. The phrase ‘brew on faces hidden
behind veils’ suggests some sort of a mysterious image. The phrase ‘misty
eyes’ suggests uncertainty. This means the poem is describing a moment of
uncertainty or confusion.
The poem seems to suggest a
hidden emotional or psychological state.
Some tanka poems are very easy to
understand. Consider the following tanka describing the onset of winter season
and its accompanying illness:
winter arrives with
wheezing sneezing and
backache
whole night without
sleep
I try pills to get
better
lamenting ageing and
pray (p.64)
The person referred to in the
poem is an old man who tries to assuage his illness by taking pills and praying
to God for the riddance. Look at another tanka:
no temple
this body degenerates
memory fades
stinking remains
can’t forget all (p.65)
Generally the body is believed to
be a temple in which the soul lives. But with the passage of time, the
body degenerates and memories become dim. But a person can’t forget everything,
some bad happenings lurk behind.
Prof. Singh does not always write
on abstract topics. Sometimes his tanka is about social issues. In the
following tanka, he very poignantly describes the poverty of a person who
collects warm ashes to find gold so that he could provide liquor for himself
and bread for the starving wife and children. Notice the irony in the poem that
the poor person does not forget buying liquor for himself without caring that
no money would be left to buy bread for the family.
There are some more tanka
referring to the social issues of dissent being regarded anti national and
competition between hungry people pushing one other for a pail of rice:
anti-national
every dissenting voice-
lotus regime
bullying the generation
with changing narratives (p.70)
and
no firsts in hunger:
they all push one another
for a pail of rice
to cook without fire, roof and
utensils lost in a landslide (p.70)
The discussion of
micro poems corroborates the saying that brevity is the soul of wit. From the
analysis of micro poems to the discussion of poems would be a logical
step. Thirty five poems in the collection are on different themes, from Nature,
Love, Azaan, Temple, Meditation to a number of different topics. We shall
discuss only a few poems in this article.
Consider this poem on
‘Nature’:
Nature is me
seeking my place
in the star through births
now memory
wild maze of conceit
and darkness
yet a tiny part
a dew drop
dotted with beauty
(Nature is Me, p. 10)
The poem offers a
relationship with the natural world. In spite of uncertainties and challenges
in life, there is a deep connection and sense of belonging that is found in the
natural world.
The lines ‘now
memory/ wild maze of conceit/ and darkness’ create a sense of confusion
and disorientation as if the speaker is
lost in a complex and uncertain world. Even in this darkness, there is a
recognition of beauty and wonder as suggested by the delicate and powerful
image of ‘a tiny part/a dew drop dotted with beauty’.
From ‘Nature’, we
move to ‘Love’ poem:
Rocking chair:
sun through the clouds in
veranda
after days of rain
and nostalgic nights
she hands me
a lukewarm tea of ginger clove
and honey to make
love and stay alive
(Love, p. 35)
The poem describes a
beautiful scene of a couple enjoying a moment of love and nostalgia on a rocking
chair on the veranda, after days of rain. The description of the warm and
soothing ginger, clove and honey concoction adds a touch of sensuality and
intimacy to the poem.
The juxtaposition of
love and the need to stay alive suggest the importance of finding comfort and
support in a partner during difficult times. The imagery of the warm drink can
also be interpreted as a metaphor for the warmth and comfort that love
provides.
Let us now move to
the poem ‘Love by Default’ from ‘Love’ poem:
When you deny love lies in fucking you cheat
millions of starving lovers smelling sex
in each encounter or dating a woman
whose hunger is different each time she meets man
to say the unsaid or live the fleeing joy
or weep longingly recall the days gone by
or rue only if it were as it once was
lying on his back like whales he lets the ships pass
and clasps a drowning one as he gasps for air
and she yields her body to love by default
(Love by Default, p. 14)
The poem presents a
complex and nuanced exploration of love and its many challenges. The language
is poetic and evocative and the use of metaphor and imagery adds depth and
richness to the piece.
The idea of loving by
default suggests a setting less than ideal relationship because the lovers have
no other choice.
The image of a whale
letting ships pass by and gasping for air suggests a sense of resignation and
defeat. ‘To say the unsaid or live the fleeing joy/ or weep lovingly recall the days gone by/ or rue only if it
was as it once was’ suggests a sense of nostalgia or longing for a past
relationship.
The lines ‘when you
deny love lies in fucking you cheat/ millions of starving lovers smelling sex’
refer to someone engaged in infidelity and a sense of desperation and longing.
The lines ‘in each encounter or dating a woman/ whose hunger is different each
time she meets man’ refers to a woman who is constantly changing and adapting
to the men she meets.
We shall now analyse
the poem ‘Locked’:
Eagle’s shadow
on the still boat on bank
blank page of tomb
that sank without history
of women who anchored
life now locked within
sandy rocks disguising faith
in phallic images
drunken politics
of carving and curving
on the potter’s wheel
(Locked, p.15)
The poem refers to
the issues related to power, gender and history in a thought provoking and
challenging way.
The first two lines
‘Eagle’s shadow on the still boat on bank’ suggest a sense of stillness and
inactivity. The lines ‘blank page of tomb that sank without history’ refer to
forgotten history and absence of women’s stories. The lives ‘of women who
anchored life now locked within sand rocks suggests the suppression of women
power.
The lines ‘faith in
phallic images, drunken politics, of carving and curving, on the potter’s
wheel’ suggest patriarchal power structures and ways in which they enforce
rigid gender roles and social norms.
A temple is a sacred
place of worship but some selfish people use it for their benefit to earn
money. Consider this poem:
Known a man of his word
before exiting the windowless hall
scrawls his bearded sinisterity
none could read he proves a rhino
turning the temple into funeral home
(Temple, p.30)
This poem presents a
dark and ominous picture of a powerful man (‘a rhino’), who has corrupted a
sacred place. This suggests that religion can be used to serve the interests of
individuals rather than the general good.
Look at the
description of the man. He had a sinister appearance (‘bearded sinisterity’)
and had the power of turning a sacred place into a place of mourning or death.
The irony of the situation is that none could comprehend or foresee his
intentions. The use of the metaphor ‘a funeral home’ is quite effective.
Like a temple,
‘azaan’ is a holy duty for the followers of Islam. But the sacred mosque may
not be holy always: they may be a mix of holy and profane, and ancient and
modern. Consider the following poem:
Precarious
at the threshold of sleep
the azaan
only a deprived
muezzin knows
behind the mosque
the peepal guards
mafia mansion
in lantern light
god’s business
(Azaan, p. 29)
This poem conveys a
sense of precariousness or instability with the speaker perceiving a complex
mix of the sacred and the profane; the traditional and the modern, the holy and
the corrupt. The poem can also be interpreted as a comment on the
illicit activities happening in the vicinity of the mosque.
The phrase the ‘threshold
of sleep’ refers to the verge of falling asleep. The caller of ‘Azaan’ (known
as muezzin) has been described as very poor which adds poignancy to the poem.
We are now going to
discuss a poem which describes a sense of isolation and the struggle for human
connection in a difficult world:
It’s no paradise
but sounds filter upwards
from small Smondo
shops
live-in couples in
Neotown
share thrills of
touch and hug
older couples miss
while walking or
watching
alone from windows
gauge their depth of
feelings
and monetary wellness
(Wellness, p.25)
This poem depicts a scene in a
place called Neotown where people live in close proximity to one another in
small shops and apartments. But still people struggle with feelings of loneliness
and yearn for physical touch and hug. The language used is descriptive and
straightforward.
Prof. Singh’s poetry sometimes
also writes about political issues. Here is a poem which calls for a more
open and inclusive politics based on mutual respect and commitment rather than
a narrow nationalism that divides people:
Is nationalism
Hindutva
or right
reactionaryism
for political
security
of the lines of
Modis, Xis, Putins
that play games of
disorder
with a Biden and
dictate
new rhetoric of
regression and repression
at home the hope and
hysteria
is dying and no
Ayodhya
Mathura or Gyanvapi
can win
votes of loyals and
traitors
without mutual right
to exist
without obscurantism
and reform
parody of promises
(Parody, p. 23)
The poem is a critique of
nationalist politics and its leaders such as Modi, Putin and Xi, who are
accused of playing games of disorder and promising regression and repression.
The poet suggests that ‘hope and hysteria’ these leaders rely on to win votes
is dying out and even controversial issues of Ayodhya, Mathura and Gyanvapi
cannot win the vote without a commitment to mutual respect and reform.
The use of language in the poem
is quite critical with words like ‘loyals and traitors’, ‘obscurantism and
parody of promises,’ suggesting a deep sense of cynicism about the ability of
nationalist politics to deliver on its promises.
Here is another poem which
conveys a sense of frustration and disillusionment with the current state of
affairs but also a sense of determination to continue moving forward despite
the difficulties.
With structural
corruption
embedded in system
who can change
the future course:
in their stinking
nests
the owls and rats
plan for
booster shots, just
in case...
dooms day is a
long dream
the pandemic cements
differences for eon
standing before a
narrow spine
the dead claim the
summit
without reaching the
top
I don’t know how to
set down
my burden and move
ahead
(Just in Case, p.28)
The phrase ‘structural
corruption’ refers to the corruption ingrained in the system. The protagonist
expresses his hopelessness at his capacity to change the corrupt society. The
use of ‘owls and rats’ refers to those who are powerful and hence they care
only for boosting their positions rather than tackling the problems at hand.
‘Dooms day’ refers to the impending danger but a crisis cements the differences
and inequalities in society for a brief period of time and later it suggests
that we don’t reach the top. The protagonist ends the poem with a sense of
despair in the face of difficulties.
In the preceding pages, we
presented a brief analysis of Prof. Singh’s poems and micro poems. They are so
full of rich meaning that a book can be written on their analysis. I
unwillingly come to conclude the present analysis.
Professor Singh’s poems are
‘sagar in gagar’ (an ocean in a pot), they are rich in content; have density of
meaning; are like ‘a sailor’s arrow that creates a deep wound’. His poems are
like a deep ocean in which the more you dive,
the more pearls you discover. The language and style are simple but deep
in meaning. Most of his poems are on abstract thoughts but there are poems
which describe the present day issues facing the country. The imagery is new
and refreshing. I enjoyed reading the poems and I am sure so will you if you
decide to read them.
Works Cited
Singh, Ram Krishna. Poems and Micropoems.Sierra Vista,
Arizona:Southern Arizona Press, 2023.
Singh, Ram Krishna. Sense and Silence: Collected Poems.
Jaipur: Yking Books, 2010.
Writers
Editors Critics ed. by KV Dominic,
13:1, March 2023.