About CC

R K Singh (1950), recently retired as Professor (HAG) from Indian School of Mines (now IIT), Dhanbad, has authored more than 160 research articles and 175 book reviews. He has published 40 books, including: Savitri: A Spiritual Epic (Criticism, 1984); My Silence (poems, 1985); My Silence and Other Selected Poems : 1974-1994 (poems, 1996); Above the Earth’s Green (poems, 1997);Every Stone Drop Pebble (haiku, 1999); 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 (2005); Teaching English for Specific Purposes: An Evolving Experience (2005); Voices of the Present: Critical Essays on Some Indian English Poets (2006); The River Returns (tanka and haiku collection, 2006); Sexless Solitude and Other Poems (2009); Sense and Silence: Collected Poems (2010); New and Selected Poems Tanka and Haiku (2012);I Am No Jesus and Other Selected Poems, Tanka and Haiku (2014), and You Can’t Scent Me and Other Selected Poems (2016), There's No Paradise and Other Selected Poems (2019), etc. He resides at J/4 (W), Rd. No.1/Block B, Vastu Vihar Colony, N H 2, Govindpur -828109 (Dhanbad), Jharkhand and can also be contacted at profrksingh@gmail.com.

1. Vastu Vihar - I

Monday worshipers

invoke Shiv on loudspeaker

spoiling rainy day:

drizzles splash against

the window panes I await

the first sentence

to preface my memoir

cooling in the drawer

their musical noise distracts

the long cloudy day

depresses my soul

I lounge around inside

cursing cooped up in here

2. Vastu Vihar - II

Morning air

is so dark here

my breathing is choked:

they say my colleagues

from ISM cleared

the existence of

six coking coal chimneys

for a fee

under the table

the aged earth mocks

the concaving patch

of the sky.

3. Vastu Vihar - III

My peers may not know

bu the maid knows

the holes in my vests:

I grow older

at a faster pace

it matters little

who owns the tree:

forty years in wood

now good to bottle

if one has taste

how sad it's only

the saw's drag I hear

and see dustcloud

in Vastu Vihar

florets simply die.

4. Uprooting Seeds

Growing nude

the plant sways in the field

and matures

in golden silk

drifts like a bee

in quiet rhythm

the sun wings the flight

and stars stand guard

till beauty plays harlot

with half-open heart

abuses night music

provokes hunger

in every street

the lewd shrines

pucker the lips

without payment

strangers come and go

uprooting seeds.

5. 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.