Five Poems by R. P. Singh

1. It surfs the blue deep

Tears were offerings to

the conspicuous eyeballs

put under glasses

for quite long.

Conversant eyes yet silent

reliving histories,

myths and spiritual substance.

Flashes from Vidura to Karna,

from Drona to Ashwatthama,

Panchal, Kosala, Avanti

and many more,

quite enlivened so often.

Karna and Surya –fond refrain.

I met too often,

Napoleon, and his humble birth...

Hardy and his vivid Wessex.

...

In bedside

with winter’s fleeting Sun,

in June breaks,

in sprinkled dust –

a philosopher lived

with a glocal urge.

Diaries, sheets and stocky notes,

popular culture

and serene discourse,

quarrels, conflicts, mêlées more,

mounting arguments

all come ashore.

It so often surfs the blue deep

the days with you come, yet to peep.

***

2. With remembrances on

The same planks

news boards and rooms

the debates, perspectives

and thoughts diverse,

circles of time, and

history’s contiguous move

come too often

so in tune.

It is circle,

and will repeat

you too in form

in every span

thoughts and move.

Thoughts creep

the same years old,

months come with more suggestions

moorings and vows,

 February with fear,

and April with remembrances on.

***

3. The colours

The colours this sad sky

meet, dear father,

in a conferencing mode.

The chain, they say

moves. This cycle

with you. I dropped.

We sailed together.

this mighty ocean brown,

from the very dawn.

Our mighty ancestral nest,

the circle began with you,

and several more the fellow travellers,

you lived the sacred Geeta’s truth, and affirmed -

We are born

we are lost

we are born

and lost again.

The words remain

yet concealed

enveloped in the eternal rhyme

the greater, eternal words.

***

4. Your remains in nature

You will learn again

what you undid your last phase,

polity, economy and English verse.

You said, you lived Hardy,

Browning, and many ancestors.

You learnt Plato, Bodin, Machiavelli

Baldwin,

and, in fact, at last

the Manav Dharma -

the new world movement,

Urdu script, and many more,

developed easier grammar too.

Your earthly ghost dissolved,

and so flew some remains

there, in the flow of the Ganges

where you were once commissioned

in uniform.

Also visited in your last phase

for a discussion with

 newly discovered Kamaruzzaman.

Your remains in nature,

and letters in thoughts.

***

5. A phase fertile

The drops censor

the scripts

creeping into the eyes

they wash,

what the brains writ

 so passionate.

Transformation is nature,

and it exists

 axis of existence.

A phase fertile

 for a span for thought

for realizations and purgation

before the summit next.

***

Prof. R. P. Singh

About the Poet

An award winning playwright, poet and academician R. P. Singh (Ravindra Pratap Singh) is a Professor of English at the Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow. As a creative writer, his plays; Flea Market and other Plays (2014), Ecologue (2014), When Brancho Flies (2014), Shakespeare ki Saat Ratein (2015), Antardwand (2016), Cahudah Farvari (2019), Chain Kahan ab Nain Hamare (2018) have received critical acclaim, and popularity. Banjaran: The Muse (2008), Cloud, Moon and a Little Girl (2017), Pathik and Pravah (2016), Neeli Aankhon Wali Ladki (2017), Adventures of Funny and Bana (2018), The World of Mavie(2020), Two Violet Flowers (2020) represent his poetry. He is the recipient of 12 awards like Swami Vivekanand Youth Award –Life Time Achievement 2020, Mohan Rakesh Puraskar(2016), Saraswat Samman (2018) S. M. Sinha Smiriti Award (2017) and Bhartendu Harischandra Award(2017) for his creative writing. Other awards conferred upon him include-Shikshak Shree Samman, Government of U.P. 2015, for innovations in teaching, and commendable contribution in Higher Education. Dr. Baba Saheb Prize for Excellence, 2011, and Dr. Ambedkar Fellowship Award – 2006.

Setu, April 2020