RAM KRISHNA SINGH

born, brought up and educated in
Varanasi is a university professor whose main fields of interest
consist of Indian English Writing, especially ppoetry and English
for Specific Purposes, especially for Science and Technology. He
has authored over 160 academic articles, 180 book reviews, and 38
books, including 13 collections of poems. His latest poetry
collections include The River Returns (2006), Sexless Solitude
and Other Poems (2009), and Sense and Silence: Collected
Poems 1974-2009 (2010). His URL: http://rksingh.blogspot.com ;
email: profrksingh@yahoo.com

1. THREAT

We chase myths in self-made Amazon
fish turtles that change color in new waters
we create landscape of nightmares and wade through
anacondas that threaten our confidence
lost in the jungles of our own making
we beat about thorny grasses now
look for the twin flames for convenience
cloud judgment and reality for control
challenge the Republic and divide
the defense that could never be

2. FISHERMAN'S SONG

Walking along the beach
they collect empty shells
that fascinate senses
in the salty river
feel the life now no more
but argue about the sex
of a conch ignoring
the fisherman's song

3. SMOKE

I can't enter
the sky high mind
of a crow or eagle
but I know
how it feels
in cold-wet air
I have lived
breathless winter
in the open
and no star woke up
to clean the smoke
I slowly became

4. DEATH

We do not know
who cares for us
live or dead
nor do we know
our end
now or ever
which meeting with whom
is the last
we do not know
when darkness gushes
in from the breach
sky sinks down
as stranger we come
as stranger
we pass
like withered grass
uncelebrated
unmourned, unknown

--R.K.SINGH
Mailing address:
--Dr R.K.SINGH, Professor & Head, Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian
School of Mines, Dhanbad 826004