The essay reviews the latest poetry collection of R.K.Singh

1. Book Review
Poet with Amoral and Humanistic Imagination
--V.V.B. Rama Rao
Ram Krishna Singh. I Am No Jesus and Other Selected Poems, Tanka, and Haiku.
Edited and translated into Crimean Tatar by Taner Murat, illustrated by Alsou
Shikhova Ildrona. Iasi: Editura StudIs, 2014. ISBN 978-606-624-562-3
There’s more to view in a dew drop
than what lies in my backyard
-- years of muck and mucking about –
burial too difficult
in sunlight images shine
like crystal ball reveal my mind
in poetic disturbance
leaking lust and blood on dried grass
(p.14)
The latest collection of poems, tanka and haiku by R.K.Singh has a rare distinction.
By 2006, R K Singh (hereinafter referred to as RK) has carved a niche for himself in
the Parthenon of Indian English poetry with the publication of five collections: My
Silence and Other Selected Poems (1996), Above the Earth’s Green (1997), Every
Stone Drop Pebble (1999), Cover to Cover: A Collection of Poems (2002), Pacem in
Terris (2003), and The River Returns (2006). He also published three more books,
Sexless Solitude and Other Poems (2009), Sense and Silence: Collected Poems
(2010), and New and Selected Poems Tanka and Haiku (2012). In Dec. 2006, in an
interview to Arbind Kumar Choudhury, RK gave his first ars poetica. Here are a few
of his averments:
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2. I write to seek a release from myself as much as from others; to feel free by unburdening
myself in verses; to experience an inner balance, feeling, probing, sensing, recalling, or
whatever.
A good poem generates some physical, emotional or psychosexual sensation, stimulates
some sensuous, spiritual or exalted pleasure, or provokes some ideas.
I have no taste for didacticism in poetry. I love brevity, rhythm, and “colouring of human
passion”; personal, lyrical, honest and free expression, with seriousness in reflection and
interpretation. Poetry lies in creating the image (like the painter who celebrates sensuality),
and in capturing momentness of a moment, which stirs the mind.
…But here [in the body of the poet’s total work till 2006] one may discover my formal taste,
personal vision, and sexual orientation rooted in Purush-Prakriti union. It is significant
for open eroticism, seriousness, candor, and exaltation of Rati.
I believe in unity of mankind and equality of sexes, and am secular and non-moral in my
attitude and values.
In 2014 this poet acquired yet another feather in his cap. I AM NO JESUS, a collection of
selected poems, tanka and haiku translated into Crimean Tatar by Romanian Taner Murat and
illustrated by Shikhova Ildarovna. This book has twenty-nine selected poems, thirty one
numbered tanka and eighty-nine unnumbered haiku. In this book poet RK, after proven
prowess, enlarges his prolegomena of his poetic composition:
“Genuine poetry happens as an event to be truthful, clear, courageous, and honest to
oneself; to be open about things one often tries to conceal. Poetry provides an opportunity
for expressing one’s intimate moments with the same passion while talking about the
interwoven outer realities.
I also view it (poetry) as the expression of cosmic, organic, erotic life, creating its own
forms, expressing itself and, in being expressed, finds its voice.
My experience convinces me that we are not limited by what we are, but we are limited by
what we are not. Poetry becomes a means to overcome this limitation, and thus, allows us
not only to know ourselves but also to expand on what we are.
This means we should remain open to healthy revisions that we can make to our way of
thinking, and incorporate new perspectives into our outlook. In other words, we should not
let our rigidity destroy our potential, but rather we should evince forward-looking, tolerant,
and open mindset if we wish to create future.” (p.7)
RK being an academic has professionally shifted himself into his lecture mood. The up and
coming poet, learning the craft of writing out his imagination and mind, would benefit by
ruminating on these ideas and profit himself in his own way. At the end, in all humility -
humility is endless – in peroration he says:
“I don’t know if my poetry fits in what I think at the moment, but poetry does help us to
traverse the boundaries of hesitation to see the joy of fulfilment.”
The first poem is not easy to understand for all if one goes alone by the title. ‘Merkaba’ is the
Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot. Once understood it sets the tone of the poems
to follow. The poem takes us back to the Hebrew prophet and we feel that the state of reality
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3. today is not different. The speaker of the poem today suffers from the same third-rate
villains. New sins, new horrors and new villainy have come up if that were to be any change.
The celestials fume in the zoo of humans. There can be nothing promising. Heaven itself is a
mirage. No water for the parched. Here is the poem itself:
“They say my birth was a heavenly event:
here I am suffering third-rate villains
that erect walls to stop the chariots
from Merkaba: the angles fume but who cares
heaven is a mirage in human zoo”
‘New Year’ is about degenerating sex jeering and it is an itch. There can be no fresh petals
with mantra and mirror for god is silent – never perturbed – for His the kingdom though it is
not said so. The very brevity of the poems is their strong point making us think, think and
think again. ‘Nude Delight’ talks of sensuous sweetness and the littleness of every moment.
The divine is coiled – a beautiful trope - for the coiled serpent is torpid. Brevity is the soul of
the poems. Many words convey less, the fewer the better would be an inspiration to fathom
the deep.
In the poem ‘Stranger’, the speaker is one and a half scores old and has no feeling of
belonging. He lives between cold walls, candles put out, with no roof on the head. The
more one thinks, the more one is perturbed, fuddled and dumbfounded. The illustration shows
the man with no roof on his head, his chest /hear sullied.
‘Avalanche’ is what it would be. The land is trivialized. There is breathlessness at midnight.
This is the state of the present. The tumbling mountain opens the wound. Man can only be
the silent stranger with no hope, no succour and no light even at the end of the tunnel.
‘Return to Wholeness’ is the genuine effort to achieve the ultimate goal. Restlessness and
negative vibrations make man look at the east only to protect his body, withstand the yelling
jackals outside and read philosophy. Body is precious as our culture told us aeons ago.
sharreramaadyam khalu dharma saadhanam. The speaker does what he could – went to Hsu
Chicheng. One must return to wholeness. The speaker remembers Buddha.
“I love its stillness
beauty and sanctity
here and now
sink into its calm
to hear the whispers in all
its ebbs and flows
erect, penetrate
the edge of life and loss
return to wholeness”
From being a particle, an atom, one should get back into wholeness. Vishnu Sahasranama the
myriad appellations of the Supreme Lord says the He is both ‘aNu’ and ‘brihat’. The ultimate
objective is to get into the wholeness.
With growth, fruition is still a long way ahead. The first step towards realization is the
capacity to feel. There is realization in the poem, the title of which is title of the book, I Am
No Jesus.
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4. “I am no Jesus
but I can feel the pains
of crucifixion
as a common man
suffer all what he suffered –
play the same refrains—
at times cry and pray
hope for better days ahead
despite lack of love
diminishing strength
failures, ennui and blames
for sins I didn’t author
...
feel for humankind
like carry the cross
and relive my dreams”
Capacity and willingness and sacrifice – feeling the pain of crucifixion are the ways to soar
upward.
‘Valley of Self’ is about helplessness. The speaker doesn’t know psalms, does not know any
goddess to worship or a mantra to chant to overcome fear. That is the valley of self:
“I see no saviour come
to rescue me when mired
I seek freedom from myself
my ordeals are mine alone
in the valley of self
I must learn to clear the clouds
soaring high or low”
This ennui which is suffering one experiences
Earlier, for one of his collections, RK chose the title Sexless Solitude. The title poem, usually,
is the one the poet considers his best to illustrate his point of view, his world vision and his
own individual stamp, his signature-tune, if you will. The endeavour is to tune in into the
reader’s mind to make sure that the complex web of feeling is put across. In this collection the
poem is included as ‘Solitude’. The earlier sex is removed but solitude remains.
Sexless Solitude is a coinage to signify a state of mind when solitude takes the main stage
with sex driven into a no-loner-significant-part to play. This, paradoxically, makes existence
significant. There are moments when the reader feels that the poet in RK is tossed on the
tightrope of spirituality and the sexy but surely this volume bids goodbye to the tossing. The
scabrous and the scatological, normally vulgar or loathsome cease to be so with a widening of
the intellectual horizon. Sin becomes behovely, as that great Saint Juliana of Norwich
convincingly declared: “Sin is behovely, all shall be well and all manner of things”. There is
no more tight-rope-walking, and hence the pronouncement in the title composition:
“I don’t seek the stone bowl
Buddha used while here
She dwells on moon beams”
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5. The poet’s vision has come to full maturation of the kind of ripening attained by mystics
after a strenuous effort at understanding the ultimate reality. All the poems display this
maturation as seen below in the sampler from the slim collection of poems included in
Sexless Solitude.
In this new collection, there is one poem which is of delight and joy. ‘From the Window’ is
relaxation both for the poet and the reader. What are seen from the car’s window are the very
common ones to things very substantially joy giving and sublime. Tall houses, trees, people,
birds and beasts are common. Suddenly there is a take off to the high, elevated region. The
speaker
“nervously worried
watch the moving mass of clouds
from the window
eternal patterns
nature’s wonder on the edge
a streak of orange
thousands
twinkle in colour like stars –
seat belt fastened”
The last line is the landing from the heights of joy.
The poem ‘Eyeless Jagannath’ is a frank admission of man’s helplessness to comprehend the
mystical thrills and depths of existence. Headpiece filled with straw, standing on the
precipice of physicality, man is Prometheus bound. The title could be construed differently,
(I’m) Eyeless! Jagannath! or, one may prosaically attribute ‘eyelessness’ to Him. In the
procession, the Supreme Lord of the Universe promenades in effulgence. The poet feels
eyeless: this could be an explanation for the earthy actuality. There is a sense of
bewilderment that, in spite of His Lordship, there should be so much gloom and emptiness
both within and without. RK is rightly attracted by breathtaking splendour of the promenade –
the rath yatra – the Lord seated in a fabulous chariot drawn by innumerable devotees. Man’s
existence between physicality and the ‘eylessness’ are poignantly communicated like the
pithy grand declarations in the Upanishads, the mahavakyas, RK’s admissions of frailty,
bewilderment and cerebration. He impresses the reader with the genuineness of his feeling:
“I stand on the edge
of earth’s physicality
waiting on the brink”
On the brink of what, if it is not on the edge of sanity and saintly insight!
‘Body – A Bliss’ is a feeling of complacent physicality. Lorca rises up from the
physical to the metaphysical in a sudden flash in the line quoted ‘To see you naked is to recall
the earth.’ Body shines momentarily and passion does not last long. This is a truism no
doubt but the understanding is valuable. Erotic love is valuable.
“it’s no sin to love
strip naked in bed, kitchen
or prayer room
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6. the bodies don’t shine
all the time nor passion
wildly overflows”
It does us good to remember that ‘parts arouse dead flesh’. Three things are signified in the
brief flash: movement, journey and evolution. Man must play seasons:
“the thirst is ever new
and blissful too
to recreate
the body, a temple
and a prayer”
The supreme realization is the function of the body. shareeramaadyam khalu dharma
sadhanam. The body is the primary requisite for dharmasadhanam, achievement and
fulfilment of dharma – in one word, prayer.
The speaker’s love and affection for the young one in the poem is a blessing and
really a benediction.
I want the best of life for you
but you must understand
what I can’t do
you must be patient and do
what you can –
I can’t create the fruits
I may create space
for you to stand but I can’t
become the legs
you must run the race
on your own and be
what you dream
the redness of mars
and the whiteness of moon
merge in you
you have worlds to conquer
and miles to go, my dear
you must rear the goose
and have the gold each day”
There is frank admission with no scheming inept hiding, in the poem ‘I Can’t Hide
Tears’. The speaker is conscious of his limitations – he is no Jesus. He is the
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7. common man. The poem opens with the speaker revealing his bent of mind. He is
just human, with no strength drawn from any divine source.
“I could not make my bedroom church
reading psalms and Lord’s prayers
the light of my lamp and
the potion of my cup couldn’t
lift my soul mired in passions
and silence of the morning
...
in verses I can’t hide fears
my face I despise, can’t find
freedom from the chemicals
sprayed in the air and the smog
...
the terrors of death are real
the traps overwhelm, I can’t
escape my own creations
the bed, the flesh, the serpents
that seize the house of God
I can’t redeem, can’t save
the soul in battle with me
in bed I can’t sing and praise”
This is human condition. The concluding poem ‘Rainbow’ is about the fallacy and
fecklessness of make-up, and using things like hair dye. Finding the colours to match
the rainbow is impossible. This is practicality nothing to do with faith or
faithlessness.
Tanka and haiku, both are Japanese verse forms from the very distant past. Tanka is a
three line poem and haiku of five. Nowadays many Indian English poets are giving
expression to their observations in these forms. As ‘snap shots’ or flashes of lightning
expressing a mood, an observation or feeling these are unique.
I think that the review cannot be complete without a brief note on the illustrator too.
There are illustrations for ten poems with the titles placed overhead. These the
handiwork of Alsou Shikhova Ildarnova aid the assimilation of the feeling of the
poems, give inspiration to think deeply and help looking up at wider horizons. The
abstractions are a treasure trove in and by themselves when carefully viewed. These
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8. poems need to be studied slowly, fathoming the depths delved by the poet and shown
vividly in illustrations.
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