R. K.Singh: A Maverick Voice in Indian English Poetry

 

Prof R.K.SINGH

by CWPF | Jun 10, 2025 | Poetry | 0 comments

 Profile of a distinguished poet-professor from India 

R. K.Singh: A Maverick Voice in Indian English Poetry

 

In the ever-evolving landscape of Indian English poetry, Ram Krishna Singh stands out as a singular, uncompromising voice. A poet, academic, and translator of rare integrity and conviction, Dr. Singh’s journey from the spiritual city of Varanasi to becoming one of the most distinctive minimalist poets in India is marked by both quiet resilience and creative audacity. His body of work, shaped over decades, resists easy classification, challenging the aesthetic and thematic expectations of Indian poetry in English.

Born in 1950, Singh belongs to the generation of Indian poets who came of age in the post-independence literary environment—navigating the tensions between inherited tradition and global modernism, between rootedness in Indian ethos and the freedom of expression that English afforded. But unlike many of his contemporaries who gravitated toward ornate or politically overt forms of verse, Singh’s poetic evolution took a different route: toward brevity, introspection, and a haunting honesty that is as unsettling as it is liberating.

The Poetic Voice: Spare, Sensual, Spiritual

Dr. R.K. Singh’s poetry is often described as minimalist, but beneath its brevity lies an intensity that invites, and at times demands, contemplation. Influenced by Japanese forms like haiku and tanka, Singh has been a pioneer in adapting these genres to the Indian context, both thematically and imagistically. His poems often capture fleeting moments—of silence, sensuality, spiritual doubt, or existential tension—distilled into a few carefully chosen words.

Books such as My Silence, Sexless Solitude and Other Poems, I Am No Jesus and Other Selected Poems, Growing Within/Desăvârşire lăuntrică, Covid-19 And Surge of Silence/Kovid-19 Hem Sessízlík Tolkȋnȋ, Tainted With Prayers/Contaminado con oraciones,  God Too Awaits Light,  Against The Waves: Selected Poems, Poems and Micropoems, and Knocking Vistas And Other Poems have not only deepened his reputation but also expanded the boundaries of what Indian English poetry can encompass. Singh’s verse strips language to its barest essentials, offering readers lines that are startlingly intimate yet universal. His haiku and tanka, often laced with erotic or philosophical undertones, evoke a mood that is contemplative, sometimes discomforting, yet undeniably human.

In a literary culture often dominated by expansive narratives and rhetorical flourishes, Singh’s poetry reminds us of the power of the unsaid, the unadorned, and the unguarded.

 

The Academic and Professional Contributor

Beyond poetry, Dr. Ram Krishna Singh has had a distinguished academic career. He served as Professor and Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (now IIT Dhanbad), where he specialized in English Language Teaching (ELT), technical communication, and ESP (English for Specific Purposes). His scholarly work, much like his poetry, was marked by clarity, precision, and a functional commitment to language as a tool of empowerment.

Singh has authored and edited several books and research papers on communication and ELT, advocating for a pedagogy that served Indian learners’ actual needs rather than imported models. His contributions to English for Science and Technology (EST) professionals in India remain influential, as do his efforts to promote Indian voices within global academic discourses.

In addition to his academic and literary output, he has been active in the international literary community, with his poems translated into multiple languages and featured in journals, anthologies, and academic studies across the world. He has also served as an editor and peer reviewer for various national and international publications, further reinforcing his stature as a respected voice in both the creative and academic fields.

The Man Behind the Pen

At the heart of Professor Singh’s writing lies a deeply personal quest—a search for authenticity in a world that often privileges appearances over essence. His poetry offers a rare window into the life of a man who has never shied away from confronting his own contradictions. Whether addressing issues of sexual identity, spiritual struggle, loneliness, or the absurdity of institutional life, Singh’s verse is marked by an ethos of vulnerability.

Raised in a traditional Indian environment, Singh has drawn from both Eastern mysticism and modern existentialism, crafting a poetics that is simultaneously rooted and iconoclastic. His work defies labels—neither entirely spiritual nor wholly sensual, not purely political yet not apolitical. In fact, the defiance of easy categories is one of the most compelling aspects of his voice. He writes not to please or persuade, but to bear witness—to himself, his time, and the subtle stirrings of the soul.

Even in retirement, Dr. Singh continues to write, publish, and mentor, engaging with both print and digital literary platforms. His resilience as a writer is matched by a quiet humility—he often distances himself from literary cliques and institutional validation, focusing instead on the honesty of the word.

Legacy and Relevance

In an era where poetry often bends to trends or algorithms, Ram Krishna Singh’s work stands as a reminder of poetry’s original promise: to illuminate the self, however complex, flawed, or incomplete. His minimalist style, far from being restrictive, becomes a form of liberation—for the poet and reader alike. It pares down experience to its raw essence, forcing us to face moments of truth we might otherwise overlook.

As Indian English poetry continues to grow in diversity and global recognition, Singh’s contribution remains both foundational and forward-looking. He is a poet for those who listen between the lines, who find meaning in the pause, the fragment, the gesture. And in this, Ram Krishna Singh is not just a poet of his time, but a voice that echoes beyond it.

The CWPF is pleased to review Professor Singh’s latest poetry book, Knocking Vistas And Other Poems published by Authors Press, New Delhi in 2024 and presents the following poems from  it for your reading pleasure:

1

ONE MORE POEM

I don’t long for the past that swings and rings

I don’t care for the future I colour

with empty wishes   prayers   and meditation

 

dream’s dark inspiration carves the present

I suffer more at night than in the day

breathe hell seeking freedom in the body

 

through friends in spirit turn sanguine despite

the tricky degeneration in shared life

one more day passes   one more poem born

 

 

2

 

MYSTERY

I’m still on nodding terms with days I hardly relish

except for memories of sex and poetry books

that’s me in stuckness in bits and pieces

howsoever dwarfed or doomed today

 

I grope the mystery that couldn’t be living:

 

autumn with songs of unbloomed spring

restive stillness mocking on the curtains

naked beings lying with blinder on the eyes

the lost moon in curse of tears never shed

 

the short grace period is no breather

to manoeuvre the words shelled in the skin

or turn oracular to light the vale

 

 

3

 

CRY OF A MOTHER

Why do they ignore the clitoris when half the world has it?

the lovers don’t care   the doctors don’t talk

 

it’s no leaf that falls on the wave’s crest

and rots on the shore before they prescribe

a chocolate remedy or testosterone cream

to revive in dapple light:

 

denial is the way of life

be it desire   emotion   or frailty

for conformity   unity   and control

 

the redness of the setting or rising sun

is too much to the drab colours of the priests

who accuse of heresy   witchcraft   or immorality

to shut the so called hotbeds of sedition

 

when all they seek is stoppage

of the show of teeth   blood   and skull

in the spinning wheel

condemned to nursing home

 

 

4

 

NEW SLAVERY

From the 15^th floor window I watch

dreams racing on the muddied road

the ugly beauty of tomorrow

 

the romance of the miserable

the egotist   the cunning   the heart-broken

the idealist   the maniacs   the enlightened cheats

 

the crafty and the unlucky too

who conceal cavity in their shoes

in the gallery of great tech game

 

fabricating newer lies and hypocrisies

of saffron politics   secular faith   and people’s power

spilling blood to heal history of wrongs

 

create new cultural fantasy

new racism   new slavery

homegrown narcissistic lords and ladies

 

 

5

 

DUBIOUS GOSPELS

Power politics

in the name of faith and god –

racist invectives

 

ranting the other

through media violence

shaping consciousness

 

all day from within

rear an impolite system--

pose neutrality

 

and foment hatreds

in official settings

shun each resistance

 

pave long-term darkness

singing anthems of progress –

dubious gospels

 

 

6

 

NOISES

I can’t hear my self

their noises erase my world

choices are denied--

questions of being wound me

courage and strength fade away

 

noises mute my voice

distract us from the truth

crowns change with the wind

and they play chess with our lives

 

they feed us dust and potions

in their new temples

arouse their magic deities

make us yell loud

and hang us upside down

 

***

[Poems selected from Knocking Vistas And Other Poems by Ram Krishna Singh. Published by Authors Press, New Delhi, 2024.]

 

--Joshua Nnadimma Ayozie

 https://cnwpfoundation.org/prof-r-k-singh/