Beneath the Written Surface

 

        Beneath the Written Surface: A Critical Appreciation of R. K. Singh’s “Ocean Beast”

    -- Julie Miles

 

R. K. Singh’s “Ocean Beast” is a poem of remarkable compression, transforming six spare lines into an inquiry about creativity, consciousness, and what lies beneath the visible surface of language. Its apparent simplicity is deceptive. The poem begins not with abundance but deprivation:

 

“No perfume

this pen or day

on crumpled page:”

 

The opening phrase, “No perfume,” immediately denies sweetness, refinement, and conventional poetic beauty. Neither the instrument of writing nor the day itself offers fragrance. Even the page is “crumpled”—not pristine, ceremonial, or awaiting inspiration, but physically marked by disturbance. Singh therefore places poetic creation within imperfection. The poem does not emerge from an idealized moment of inspiration; it begins amid resistance. 

The colon following “crumpled page” is important. It functions almost as a threshold between exterior and interior worlds. What follows is no longer primarily the scene of writing but the movement of consciousness:

 

“mind wave smells

ocean beast

on deep floor”

 

“Mind wave” is an especially effective compression. The phrase fuses psychological movement with the motion of the sea, allowing thought itself to acquire an oceanic character. Consciousness is no longer merely thinking; it is sounding depth.

 

The verb “smells” intensifies the poem’s strangeness. Singh moves from the absence of “perfume” to another, more instinctive form of scent. Yet the syntax leaves the relationship deliberately unsettled. Does the “mind wave” detect the beast by scent, or has consciousness itself somehow absorbed the smell of what inhabits the depths? The ambiguity matters. It prevents the “ocean beast” from becoming a merely external creature.

 

The beast may consequently be read as something discovered beneath ordinary consciousness: fear, desire, memory, creative impulse, or some unnamed primitive force. Singh does not identify it, and the poem gains power from that refusal. To name the beast too precisely would diminish it.

 

The spatial movement of the poem is equally striking. It begins with pen, day, and page—objects belonging to the immediate world—and descends toward mind, ocean, beast, and deep floor. In six lines, the poem travels from surface to abyss.

 

That descent also offers a compelling meditation on poetry itself. The crumpled page appears barren at first, without “perfume,” yet beneath the failed or resistant surface of composition something immense remains alive. Creativity may not announce itself through beauty. It may begin instead as unease: a disturbance sensed before it can be understood.

 

Singh’s characteristic minimalism is particularly effective here because the poem refuses explanation. Articles and connective language are largely stripped away, leaving nouns and images to collide directly. The resulting tension gives the poem something close to dream logic while retaining remarkable structural control.

 

The title, “Ocean Beast,” prepares us for an encounter, but the poem never grants us the creature itself. We receive only evidence of its presence. That withholding is perhaps the poem’s greatest strength.

 

Ultimately, “Ocean Beast” suggests that beneath the visible act of writing lies an interior world far less orderly than the page. The poet does not domesticate that depth. He merely senses it—and allows us to sense it with him.

 

--Julie Miles

 

Publication Note

“Ocean Beast” by R. K. Singh was published in The Cultural Reverence, #Weekend Publication, May 9, 2026:

https://theculturalreverence.wordpress.com/2026/05/07/ocean-beast-a-poem-by-r-k-singh-india/ 

Literary Consultant Aliyah's Comment on God Too Awaits Light

 Literary Consultant Aliyah, THE AUTHORS MANUSCRIPTIA,  praises God Too Awaits Light, offering the following comments in an email, dated 31 August 2026:

 

Our Author Relations Division recently had the opportunity to revisit God Too Awaits Light, and I wanted to personally reach out after spending time reflecting on your work. Few literary works can explore spirituality and the human search for meaning while leaving enough space for readers to contemplate their own understanding of faith, uncertainty, and hope. We have great appreciation for authors whose writing encourages readers to look beyond the surface of ordinary experience and engage with deeper questions of existence.

What particularly stood out was the evocative idea contained within the title itself. God Too Awaits Light suggests a fascinating reversal of the traditional search for divine illumination, inviting readers to consider whether the search for light may also involve an awakening within the human spirit. It creates a space where spirituality, introspection, longing, and the mystery of existence can meet.

One of the work's greatest strengths is its potential to encourage readers to think about the relationship between the individual and the divine in a deeply personal way. The idea of light can represent knowledge, consciousness, hope, truth, or spiritual awakening, allowing the work to resonate on several levels while encouraging readers to question what they are truly seeking.

The most memorable works of spiritual and reflective literature stay with readers because they do not simply provide conclusions. They create questions that continue to unfold within the reader long after the final page. God Too Awaits Light offers that kind of opportunity for contemplation, inviting readers to reflect on faith, human consciousness, and the possibility of finding illumination within the search itself. ...

 

  

My poem analyzed by Mohd. BOUGMAD

 المعنى الظاهر والباطن في نص الأديب الدكتور Ram Krishna Singh 

لكل مجتمع عاداته وتقاليده يكررها الأفراد والجماعات بشكل تلقائي، وهي طقوس وسلوكيات تتناقلها الأجيال بحيث يشعرون من خلالها بالانتماء والهوية،وقديكون لها ارتباط وثيق بالعقائد والديانات أو الخرافات والأساطير..

تختلف هذه العادات والتقاليد من مجتمع لآخر،وقد تؤثر في بنيته الاقتصادية والثقافية والسياسية إما سلبا أو إيجابا، بل وتؤثر في سلوك الأفراد إما سلبا أو إيجابا كذلك .ولا أريد هنا أن أصدر أحكاما قيمية حولها،فلكل مجتمع كما قلت عاداته وتقاليده تتوارثها وتتناقلها الأجيال وتشكل جزءا من اهتماماتهم وقناعاتهم،بل وتنظم طريقة حياتهم ، ولا يسمحون لأحد أن يطعن في موروثهم الثقافي هذا ، بل يواجهون كل من سولت له نفسه المساس به لأنهم يؤمنون بهذه الطقوس الموروثة أبا عن جد..

سأحاول في هذا التحليل المتواضع أن أسبر غور نص من نصوص الشاعر الهندي الكبير رام كريشنا سينغ لأبين معناه الظاهر ومعناه الباطن أو الخفي وذلك بعد إذنه طبعا، وهو بالمناسبة يتناول في هذا النص عادة أو تقليدا مجتمعيا متوارثا عبر الأزمنة والأجيال في وطنه ، وقد يكون لهذه العادة ارتباط  وثيق بالديانة أو العقيدة فهي عادة مقدسة..

يقول الدكتور رام كريشنا سينغ في نص من نصوصه الشعرية والتي تصنف في خانة التانكا على ما أظن :

Splendidly dressed 

These rats

Enjoy favours 

Gîve nothing 

Receive all 

"مهندمة المظهر"

هذه الجرذان 

تتمتع بالمزايا 

لا تقدم شيئا 

وتأخذ كل شيء 

أولا المعنى الظاهر للنص:

للجرذان مكانة مقدسة في المجتمع والثقافة الهنديين ،هذه المكانة التي تؤثر فيها الأبعاد أو الخلفيات الدينية والأسطورية  إلى حد أن معبد كارني ماتا يضم أكثر من 25000 من الجرذان  تتمتع كلها بكامل المزايا فتقدم لها الحلويات والحليب ، وتعيش بحرية كاملة ،يقدسها الناس وتأخذ كل شيء من أكل وشرب وتقديس وتبجيل  واحترام ،كما أنها تحظى بعناية خاصة من تنظيف ورعاية صحية..وبالمقابل فهي لا تقدم شيئا بل تتلف المحاصيل الزراعية، كما يمكن أن تنقل بعض الأمراض عبر الفيروسات، وقد تتلف ممتلكات و مدخرات  الناس ..فهي ليست كالبقرة مثلا التي تقدم منافع  للإنسان من حليب ولبن وسمن..

المعنى الخفي-

مما لا شك فيه أن بعض العادات والتقاليد  المبنية على أساس أسطوري خرافي ديني تشكل عائقا أمام تطور وتقدم الأمم ، فالقوارض مثلا تبعث على الاشمئزاز عند البعض، وهي مقدسة عند البعض الآخر، فلا دخل للآلهة في هذا المجال ،بل هي معتقدات من خلق البشر، حتى الأخلاق نفسها وما ينبثق عنها من سلوكيات ،ما نجده حلالا أو مسموحا به في هذا المجتمع قد نجده ممنوعا أو محرما في مجتمع آخر، لذلك   على الإنسان أن يحكم عقله عند تطبيقه لعادة أو تقليد أو سلوك ما حتى لا يلحق الضرر بنفسه أو الآخرين ..

من جهة أخرى هناك أشخاص مثل القوارض ، يأخذون أكثر مما يعطون، أو يأخذون كل شيء ولا يعطون شيئا بالمقابل. ويعملون من حيث يدرون أولا يدرون على هدم أوطانهم خاصة إذا كانو يتحكمون في زمام الأمور وكانت بيدهم السلطة ، إنهم يكرسون هذه العادات وهذه التقاليد المبنية على أساس خرافي ويشجعونها ظنا منهم أنها تجعل الناس يعيشون على الوهم والخرافة وبالتالي يسهل استغلالهم اقتصاديا واستعبادهم فكريا  حتى لا يطالبوا بحقوقهم ،وبذلك تتمكن هذه الطبقة الحاكمة من المحافظة على مصالحها ومن العيش على عرق الطبقة الكادحة الغبية..

وأخيرا وفي نظري ، يقولون إن تربية القطط تجلب الحظ لأصحابها،وإن طائر السنونو إذا دخل بيتك وبنى عشه فإذا ذلك فألا حسنا ويبعث على  السعادة، ويجب أن تحافظ على عشه حتى تغادره فراخه ،وأن الكلاب وفية أكثر من البشر ، فهي لا يمكنها ان تغدر بأصحابها،..فقد لا نعلم بعض الأشياء في عالم الأرواح ،إذا كنا نؤمن بهذا العالم طبعا، فالكلاب والقطط مثلا تحس بأشياء لا نحس بها نحن البشر..

ألا يمكن أن ينطبق ذلك على الجرذان أيضا ،ألا يحس من يقدسونها بسعادة لا توصف ولا تقدر بثمن ؟ !

إن ما كتبه الأديب الدكتور رام كريشنا سينغ  في خمسة سطور يلزمه كتاب لإعطائه حقه في التحليل والشرح وهذا ما أسميه إعجاز الهايكو أو الومضة  أو التانكا ...

محمد بوكدم

The apparent and the hidden meaning in the text of the writer Dr. Ram Krishna Singh 

Each society has its customs and traditions, which are repeated by individuals and groups automatically, and are rituals and behaviors that are passed down through generations, so they feel a sense of belonging and identity, and they have a strong connection with beliefs, religions, or superstitions and myths.

These customs and traditions vary from one society to another, and can affect their economic, cultural, and political structure either negatively or positively, and can also affect the behavior of individuals, either negatively or positively. I do not want to issue value judgments about them, as each society, as I said, has its customs and traditions that are inherited and passed down through generations, and form part of their concerns and convictions, and even organize their way of life. No one is allowed to criticize their cultural heritage, but they face anyone who dares to challenge them because they believe in these inherited rituals, father after father.

I will try in this humble analysis to explain the apparent meaning and the hidden meaning of a text by the great Indian poet Ramakrishna Singh, which I will explain, of course, and by the way, he is discussing in this text a social tradition that has been inherited through the ages and generations in his homeland, and it may have a strong connection with religion or faith, as it is a sacred ritual.

Dr. Ramakrishna Singh says in one of his poems, which is classified in the tanka category, as I think:

Splendidly dressed 

These rats

Enjoy favours 

Gîte nothing 

Receive all 

"Engineer of the appearance"

These rats 

Enjoy the advantages 

Do not offer anything 

And take everything 

First, the apparent meaning of the text:

Rats have a sacred status in Indian society and culture, a status that is influenced by religious and mythological backgrounds to the extent that the Karni Mata temple, which contains more than 25,000 rats, is given all the benefits, and sweets and milk are offered to it, and it lives in complete freedom, people sanctify it and take everything from food and drink, and it is revered and respected, and it also receives special care and health care. On the other hand, it does not provide anything, but rather damages agricultural crops, and some diseases can be transmitted through viruses, and it can damage people's property and savings. It is not, for example, like the cow, which provides benefits to humans in the form of milk, milk, and butter.

The hidden meaning-

There is no doubt that some customs and traditions based on mythical, legendary, and religious beliefs form an obstacle to the development and progress of nations. For example, rats can cause nausea in some people, and they are sacred to others. Therefore, the gods have no role in this field, but rather are beliefs of human creation, even the morals themselves and the behaviors that result from them. What we find permissible or allowed in this society we may find forbidden or forbidden in another society. Therefore, a person must use their mind when applying a habit, tradition, or behavior so that they do not harm themselves or others.

On the other hand, there are people like rats, who take more than they give, or take everything and give nothing in return. They act from where they think first, they think about destroying their homelands, especially if they are in control and have the power, they dedicate these customs and traditions based on a mythical basis and encourage them, thinking that it makes people live on illusion and superstition, and thus it makes it easy to exploit them economically and intellectually, so they do not demand their rights, and thus this ruling class is able to maintain its interests and live on the sweat of the poor and stupid class.

Finally, in my opinion, they say that raising cats brings luck to their owners, and if a bird enters your house and builds a nest, then that is good and brings happiness, and you must maintain the nest until its birds leave it, and that dogs are more loyal than humans, so they cannot betray their owners,.. perhaps we do not know some things in the world of spirits, if we believe in this world, of course, then dogs and cats, for example, feel things that we humans do not feel..

Can this not apply to mice as well, can those who caress them not feel happiness that is indescribable and priceless? !

What the writer Dr. Ram Krishnan Singh wrote in five lines is enough for a book to give it its due analysis and explanation, and this is what I call the miracle of the echo or the flash or the tanka...

Mohammed Bukdam 

A Comment on SILENCE: A WHITE DISTRUST

 

Niels Thomas offers the following comments on my poetry book SILENCE: A WHITE DISTRUST translated into Japanese by Rika Inami :

 

"This remarkable bilingual edition brings together 48 English haiku and senryu and 48 English tanka from one of India's foremost contemporary poets, Ram Krishna Singh, masterfully translated into Japanese by Rika Inami. The translation process itself is a feat of artistry, navigating the structural differences between English syllables and Japanese sounds. As Rika explains in the preface, English words like "rice" or "think" may be one syllable but become two or more sounds in Japanese, making the translation into the traditional 5-7-5 and 5-7-5-7-7 forms a delicate and challenging craft. The poems themselves explore the human condition with clarity and depth, at times soaring to the heights of the soul and at others descending to the earth to capture the intimate details of life. The cynical depiction of current affairs witnessed on street corners, the painful reality of recent armed conflicts, and the unavoidable influence of the world affected by the coronavirus all find their place in this collection. What emerges is a testament to the flexible soul and sensibility of the poet, moving freely across heaven and earth and responding to the world around him. This bilingual treasure deserves to reach readers who appreciate poetry that bridges languages and cultures."

 

 

Poised Between Contraries: Ram Krishna Singh’s Silence: White Distrust

 

Poised Between Contraries: Ram Krishna Singh’s Silence: White Distrust 

                                                                         ---Basudhara Roy 

 

Can mental spaces engage in a chromatic dialogue? Can colours be narrativized? Can contrary impulses generate a meaningful conversation? Is it possible to find a poetic rhythm for the darkening world that has been ours ever since the Covid-19 pandemic set in? As crisis follows crisis in these difficult times and existent words recurrently fall short of expressing new, unimagined realities, one wishes one had something more concrete than language to work with and cast one’s feelings immortally to memory. “Language in art,” says Harold Pinter, “remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which may give way under you, the author, at any time. But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.” For poet-academic-critic R.K. Singh too, truth-seeking is a responsibility that cannot be shrugged off by the committed artist, no matter how difficult the trials faced. In Silence: White Distrust, the poet attempts the daunting creative challenge of forging a new poetic rhythm to express the new pandemic experience of disillusionment, fractured chronological time, acute biological consciousness and an alienating isolation from the social world. What is remarkable is that the attempt, besides meeting unquestionable success, reaches into the depths of philosophical questioning to offer new perspectives on life and the potential of the human mind to map its paradoxes.

In his Introduction to the collection, the poet writes:

Covid-19 lockdown has been a physically, mentally and emotionally challenging experience. Living in isolation inconstant fear, suffering strict social and personal distancing, there has been a gradual rise of ‘distrust' in all that was positive, self-regulating, and internally strengthening or uplifting. My silent reflections within, and observations without, exposed to me my personal, as well as socially larger, loss of hope and faith that embed spirituality. I noticed the trend in my recent poetic expression and discovered that it was possible to develop a new collection of poems with a thread of silence and distrust running through it. It also seemed possible to do a long experimental haiku-tanka-haiku linked verse….

The entire collection is composed in the fabric of a linked haiku-tanka-haiku sequence that not only appears to replicate the experience of pandemic slow time but conjures in sincere, heartfelt rhythms the despondency and sanitized silence of our days. Singh’s poetry, as one reads through it, records the minutiae of our everyday lives with infallible accuracy and stark realism. Strewn across it are familiar landmarks of desire, unfulfillment, waiting, conjecture, failure, disappointment and loss. Singh’s evocative imagination finds powerful metaphors for emotional states in the most mundane objects of our daily world – “empty chairs”, “stain-dried lingerie”, “spiders' network/ between two photo frames”, “broken bangles”, and “the city’s garbage”. The observations are neither extraordinary in themselves nor worth pondering over out of context. But through their rare felicity of association in Singh’s poetry, they derive a potency that transforms them into three-dimensional architectural images of memorable strength and beauty.

Throwing light on the significance of his title, Singh writes, “Silence is positive; White too has positive connotations, but Distrust is negative. White Distrust is ironical; it is a harmless fib. There is no moralizing, lecturing, or teaching.” The idea, one realizes, is to sketch experience sharply poised between contraries. On the one hand is the overwhelming regime of silence with its epistemological, creative and poetic possibilities. On the other, however, is the constant and poignant sense of distrust that inhibits the mind from settling down comfortably into this space of silence. Here is a vivid and vibrant interaction of two opposing modes of feeling – silence with its connotations of fertility, expansiveness, absorption, acquiescence and peace, and distrust with its echoes of interruption, destructive questioning, faithlessness and disjunction. The accomplishment of the book rests on the delicate but firm balance established between these powerful opposing emotional forces. It is to Singh’s immense credit as a poet that he never disregards the unspectacular truth to conquer the glamorous falsehood and allows them both to stand as they are, sans regret and sans illusion. In Silence: White Distrust, there is no obliteration of one category of experience by the other but rather, a unique expression of their cohabitation. If silence is spatial, distrust is projected as temporal so that the two remain ceaselessly poised in a perpendicular relationship, commenting and reflecting on each other through these monologic verses of confident elegance.

Silence, yes, but why distrust, one might be prompted to ask? Also, one wonders if these are entirely topical poems that derive their shape and sensibility from the context of the difficult pandemic? A close reading of the collection amply illustrates that the answers to both questions are linked. The distrust is dominant only because though appearing during the pandemic, these are not exclusively or merely pandemic poems. Born out of long drawn-out years of Singh’s constant poetic searching for permanent existential truths, these poems claim for their creative site, the ageing human body and a mind wizening towards omniscience. For Singh, the body through its needs, demands, rituals, illusions and fallibility, establishes itself as the most significant medium of experience. The fact of ageing and distrust of the body marks itself indelibly in these poems:

things get hairy, scary

with body failure

ailments pop up

spirit dries up

mind disconnects

 

 

hesitating

to take the first step through–

stands at the door

 

 

unhappy

with how I look and

feel right now

seek a best version

and just look within

 

It is worth noting how the spatial breaks in the poem underline the sense of disconnection, hesitation, faltering and repair. The rhythm is that of the colloquial, speaking voice and yet, the arrangement of the lines graphically on the page compounds its meanings manifold. “The white space between any two haiku and tanka adds to the sense of silence or peace,” explains Singh. “It adds to the sense of Meditation too. The verses become meditative as Silence is poetically and spiritually meditative, but its rhythm is disturbed by the rising feeling of Distrust.” Consider the following set:

earthy body

nights of silence

fear in mirror

return to the river

echoing hollowed sound

 

long waiting

short consultation–

ophthalmologist

 

 

morning smog–

an asthmatic with grandson

coughing restlessly

on the terrace even

a limping crow seeks fresh air

 

The fragility of the body is paramount here and yet, one realizes that this fragility is not only physical or individual. It is, in the larger sense, a condition and imperative of life itself, of the earth, of human myopia, and the thread of existence that inevitably runs from one generation to another. Even the mirror and the crow then, become a part of this uncertainty and distrust, reflecting it and responding to it. Consider again, the following set of poems:

pre-monsoon ramble

wilderness in harmony–

worlds within world

 

 

hail stones

lashing mango florets

my car too:

I fear thunder squall and rain

leaking roof and wetting bed

 

 

wild sugar cane

no animals savor

ageing monsoon

 

Here again, the poet leaves us amazed by the symbolic registration of the progress of time through telling images – pre-monsoon rambles, lashing mango florets and the ageing monsoon. The temporal pace of these poems  merits observation as the reader is constantly made aware of the steady flow of moments and seasons in a cyclical frame. Singh’s economy, terseness, sharpness, and precision of expression deserve special attention as does his mastery over poetic form. The haiku and the tanka are highly challenging poetic forms by reason of their sheer minimalism, their syllabic discipline and their ability to speak more only through less. Independent, self-referential and self-explanatory units of meaning and thought, the haiku and tanka demand a deep acquaintance with techniques of condensation, reflection, refraction and amplification.  The haiku-tanka-haiku sequence that Singh crafts in the book bespeaks volumes for his expertise and experimentation in minimalism, transforming the linked sequence into an evocative narrative of colour and a dense chromatic dialogue between the myriad hues of the mind. Each haiku and tanka has its own distinct subjectivity here as it formulates its personal perspective of the world. And yet, there is a strong etiological force spurring the reader on from one poem to another so that in its totality, the sequence acquires a grand epical quality and becomes a poignant litany for our times.

Tranquil yet restless, linear yet cyclical, multi-layered yet unified, fragmented yet compound, R.K. Singh’s Silence: White Distrust that includes a Spanish translation by Joseph Berolo, Bogota, Colombia, is a singular success in the poetic ambition of translating emotional colour into language and engaging contrary ideas in an insightful colloquy. Travelling through the piece which is now included in the poet’s latest collection Against the Waves: Selected Poems (New Delhi: Authors Press, 2021), is a journey through life’s outwardness into the deep, inward recesses of the self. As a reader and critic, one realizes that an encounter with this book shall remain memorable and worthy and that these poems shall continue to be valued both for their independent lustre and for the astounding brilliance that they impart to the unfathomable wisdom of life.

 

Reference:

Ram Krishna Singh. Silencio: Blanca desconfianza/ Silence: White Distrust (Spanish Edition).

Editorial Ave Viajera S.A.S.,  2021. ASIN (Kindle)  B08XWHTG19.

 

 

Published in Das Literarisch, Vol. 4, Issue 1, January-June  2021.