Two Poems and Ten Tanka in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, 24 January 2025

 

Two Poems & Ten Tanka Poems by Ram Krishna Singh

 

Search My Own Music

Dull notes of life

await re-ordering--

rhythm and pitch

behind closed walls humming

to search my own music

 

shake the silent soul

before the final beat

create symphony

merging truth and dream on

lips and eyes that’re alive

Body's No Picnic

Not too many issues

yet enough to upset

the mind of men and women

in postlapsarian world:

 

she blames me for changing size

shifting shape and cracking bones

aching joints and sleeplessness

menopausal ups and downs

 

she kicks me out of bed

saying my body’s no picnic

 

I know it’s difficult

to be a woman and wife

working and making home

 

I may be no saint

in your eyes but I never

tried to remake you

in my own or God’s image

 

I can’t give birth like you

nor can I stop the changes in you

I’ve no miracle pill

 

your body, your anger

I love you as you are

let’s carry no useless weight

 

Ten Tanka

Sealed vial

a product of time

I am

cut open and see

how life spends me

***

 

Anal bleeding

overweening reliance

on faith healing

leshies inside astray

limping hope and hairy age

 

***

Much before they script

new jihad for romance--

racist purity

in a cracked mirror each one

looks for share in the grabbed moon

***

 

Half-drunk women

on one side of the road

pimps on the other

ready to seize first-timers

to the tin box by street lamps

 

***

 

While I sit still

how my shadow moves

the little flame of candle

tossing against the wind

or wheedling passion nestles

in the grey of mound

 

***

 

Standing on a cloud

look through an open door way:

desires awakened

before I could step inside

the door closed, I missed my chance

 

***

 

Unquenched thirst

more and more indulgence

momentary pleasure

she says it’s enough now

rein the horse and seek the missed

 

***

 

Unemptied

the cup of remorse—

begging bowl

before the dumb deity

years of noisy silence

***

 

God has become

a habit in helplessness

faith a deception

when unable to enjoy

love, life and wonders of world

***

Stars on the earth

these glow-worms I want to clasp

into hands and

offer to God as flowers

of my first obeisance

 https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2025/01/two-poems-ten-tanka-poems-by-ram.html?m=1