TANKA:  R.K.Singh, INDIA



                 NO  MOIST  SECRETS:  SOME  TANKA



Layers of dust thicken
on the mirror water makes
the smuts prominent:
I wipe and wipe and yet
the stains stay like sin



When I have no home
I seek refuge in the cage
of your heart and close
my eyes to see with your nipples
the tree that cared to save from sun



In the forest of your hair
my finger searches 
the little pearl of blood
that stirs the hidden waters
and contains my restlessness


When I inhale in
your mouth and exhale stroking
hair or caressing
I ride you into joy and
make you hail morning like earth


Winter is caught in
waves of narrow discussions 
under the blanket
fingers move by nipples erect
without sensing consummation


Life limits between
whence the sun rises and where
it goes to relax:
joys of a fleeting moment
I see Aditi in her eyes


Will you marry my soul?
or lend me your body?
I've used it to the core
the rament is tattered now
even ghosts despise it


Where will I reach running
with gluey feet on gashed earth
a relentless sun licks
leftover of a dying day


My nails are too weak
to stir the neck now frozen
with kisses the earth
is redeemed by itself


The mount of Venus
rises above the mars
and unites on my palm
like a horse and elephant


Is it the heat wave
or stupor that I see
shadows in the dark
and call it vision?


Is it her quietus
that she roars in herself
like a sea
waves upon waves
leaps upon herself?


Crazy these people
don't know how to go down
with the swirl and up
with the whirl but play
in the raging water


In my impatience
I werdle or opup more:
they take their own time
here waiting is more aweful
than meeting or going


Time stands still
in November chill
I fill emptiness
with words paint season
on your face


Psalms or no psalms:
workers of iniquity
shoot their arrows
with praising lips and God
flees to see their shrewd schemes



Everyone looks at
mercury venus saturn
mars and jupiter
lined up after the sunset:
people getting on better



The lips in her eyes
and long hours in the mouth-
no moist secrets
between us to reveal:
now our backs to each other



I fear the demons
rising from my body
at midnight crowding
the mind and leading the soul
to deeper darkness



All her predictions
could come true had I paid her
the fees for writing
psychic reflections on dreams
I failed to realise in life



Swirling spiral
of her skirt spills tides of dream
and memory:
I breathe fire in the dance
forgetting bends and twists



Wrinkles on the skin
remind me of time's passage
year by year travelled
long distances renewing
spirit and waving goodbye



Feeling  the difference
between a tin house and 
a weather proof tent: 
on the Yamuna's bank
Kumbh deluge to wash sins



Bored with politics
and n ews of falling sensex
he foulds the paper
and flips through the old Playboys
to see the nudes seen in youth


She receives my call
complaining why I don't go
to see my father
while he says it's alright
only gums bleed and joints ache



Over the dried moss
rains have grown new layers
making the path more
slippery for all of us
falling is postscript now



Stray fungi grow
on the broken window frame
beside my bed 
watery smell swells as if
a corpse in the river



It's too difficult
to remember the faces
I meet and unmeet
on the campus none bother
who greets whom with double grin



Disowned and alone
the falling leaf looks for
space on the lake's bank
they plan to raise a grave
to hide the wind's secret



With moral twists
name of god or religion
they fly planes to bomb
sheep of his pasture and
expect grace for humankind



They claim to kill satan
mass murder innocents
and blow themselves up:
I wonder how god condones
vague prophets and their cults



Preaching peace
explode plane bomb, car bomb
human bomb
and bluff the living corpses
with politics of terror



There's nothing youthful
about the morning wetness--
lingering in bed
I wonder what will happen
when my muse too grows wrinkles



Breathing allergiers
it aches my soul to live here
even for a day
and suffer their whispers
for keeping us away



Feeling the pain
frozen in the ribs
doctor views normal
for survival gives a shot
and slepily I forget


Clicking the mouse twice
to open the page to see
her face and message
on the PC refreshes
three times as she clicks her heels



Like tramps and dogs
they piss and shit I see
I'm sucked in my own cracks:
now curl and cry
but none bother



Someone killed a snake
last night burnt its body half
at our gate covered
it with grass and soil fearing
nemesis in the morning



I couldn't understand
what's Hindu about having
fish and onion
after prayers in Tuesday feast
in the templeyard



Breathing pipe choked
with coloured dust celebrate
spring in coalfield:
the moon mocks my nightly plight
I look for the inhaler



He watches a mound
of dead leaves in the backyard
to grow dreams after
the end of summer and draught:
rains nurture seeds birds buried



With black and white marks
and nest of ants on its skin
the tree grows taller
shining through the geometry
of sun, moon and halogen



Her eyes-
a game of fire
burning love
in the body
seek consummation



Alone in my house:
wife gone out to market
and children far away
I watch FTV and drink
to forget I'm 52



Tensions in bed:
our meeting after a long
and her UTI--
again I swallow a pill
to sleep aone in winter chill



The nightqueen smells sweet
in cold moon at my window
bedroom turns lively
with memories of whispers
half asleep in her arms



Trapped between her breasts
the key of my car keeps me
from going homeward--
I can't even say goodbye
till she beds and drops it down



Gentle like a dove
love was graceful a night away
on the white wave it's
a sea searching eays leaps to
eternity tonight



The rains 
cry to meet earth
fall from sky day and night
remind love always yields to arms
open



I thought I'd exchange
my anxieties for a bit
of peace but thinking
was easier than happening:
I couldn't even sleep



My voice
brown like autumn
crushed in noises I can't 
understand days pass in colours
buried



I stayed at the ghats
so many years couldn't see
sun's calligraphy
shining on the reiver's breast
now choked with city's garbage



Let's put out the light
no visitors will come and
disturb our love time:
now I don't want any guests
to share you, me and silence



He flashed a faint smile
holding pen between fingers:
god dropped in his mind
enlarging moments
of happiness into life



They use my open door
for their invectives
against me:
I keep no accounts
and no bars



Realities challenge
my being so often
I want to immigrate
with my savage heart
and try to live afresh



Lying all day
with pain the heels
and sinking heart
I read tanka and wait
for miracle to sleep



The chart predicts
I must keep the company
of the righteous
but how to find one among
the wicked that write our fate?



Recedes into self:
crooked trees and leaking roofs-
the city conspires
swarmed with ,listless spirits
young and living, slowly dying



The sun
on a mountain
grave illumines the path
to divinity unrealised
in soul



Waiting for the remains
of the sacrifice vultures
on the temple tree
stink with humans and goddess
on the river's bank



Looking at her face
for the glint of her nosepin
or rise of renku
they couldn't finish but form
in their eyes together



The bamboo garden
we picnicked and made love in
is now a concrete
managing environment
and pollution control



Unable to clean
the cobweb of years he eats
the passover meal
but forgets to wash the feet:
now drinks Good Friday prayers



Before the foamy
water could sting her vulva
a jellyfish passed
through the crotch making her shy--
the sea whispered a new song



He takes out the letter
and writes a poem on its back
recalling the last words
wind whispered through the stars
still shining in the sky



Swallowing capsules
he trusts in absent healing
seeks intercessions
to cure allergic asthma
and the cyst not contracting



Naked children crowd
as I pass through the alleys
between smelly slums:
dogs bark to alert them to
the presence of a stranger



Waving arms of trees
conspire with overcast day
to drench again
the two of us look for shade
under leaking umbrella



The truth of our
togetherness is more real
when we lie filling
our body with each other
silencing sensdation



Seven times he moves
round the vermillion god
under the peepal
sprinkling water to escape
the malefic saturn


They watch her bare back
to feel the body through crotch
thank engraving pen
she loves the etching on skin
to enhance nudity



The otter watches
a duck walking on
the frozen river
icicles drop bit by bit
from a lone tree


Drinking evening star
blue green patterns before eyes
no meditation
no god visits to forgive
the sinning soul in quietude



The nude reads his skinpeeling eyes
and curses the crumbled canvass
the wrinkling hands couldn't set: 
she suffers naked burial
for simple art in crudities



The heat inside will
reduce the flow of blood
and cactus may bloom
in desert of flesh again
the heart may feel the green wave



I'm no river
flowing toward the sea
I must find my way
asking strangers in strange places
sensing soul, using insight



The blank space between words
is the burnt skin of time
I coulldn't paint:
they stole the colours
and brush of the eyes



I may pretend to know
but I know I know nothing:
the knowledge I seek sinks
my image jumps the mirror
my self I can't see



Ghosts rise to mate
in moonlight tear the tombs
frighten with fingers
rhino horns rock the centre
granite sensation


Drugs don't diagnose so
let's kiss our sneezes
into each other and stop
worrying about repression
necessary or surplus



This chilly night
she folds her arms and legs
resting her head
upon the knees and sits
as an island



The sun couldn't help
nor fish protest:
river has no sex
so it dried up
trapped between its own banks


Except the naked
no one talks about cold wind
whisper through window
skin to skin witrh chill echoes
burial in icy bed


A sheet of petals
spread over the lawn whole night:
the bench white  tomb
in the morn ing calm greets
the gardner with smiling arms



To live free
we all search for
a no man's land:
they've made us slaves
in our own land


They couldn't hide the moon
in water or boat but now
fish moonlight from sky:
I watch their wisdom and smile
why I lent my rod and bait



Two actors
in spirited combat
entwine, wrestle
and recreate the souls
in the perfumed garden



The sun of knowledge
shining through the beer bottle
under the neem tree:
carousing, singing in praise
of gods and ghosts that never drank



The noise of prayers
before the idol
making for sacrifice and
claiming the best parts in advance
unmindful of the goat's tears


Laden with new shoots
the trees promise mangoes
to celebrate summer:
the dust storm and rain shatter
all hopes hanging by snapped wire



Stretched between son and daughter
the mother has no time
to sleep with husband:
crying alone in pain after
midnight peeking out at stars



Raising each child--
a test of patience, learning
each day to live
and smile their innocence
through aching arms and shoulders


His first winter--
recalls swirling snowflakes
at Chaluka
inside the fibrehut
warmth of blue waves surging


Whirling and gliding
with livelier partners
in the pool breathless
I can't keep pace with her
swim my way to the bank


A moment of love
and long silence for years:
from dream to nightmare
again fear grips my soul
I sense her presence around


Digging sand
with her little toes
the toddler
in thin sun awaits 
her mom from the sea


At the river-front
indrwan with Buddha's image
in Padmasana
eyes half-closed, meditating
his eyes not yet opened


After days of rain
it seems summer again
sweating all day
now without light at night
many thoughts drift like clouds


Wish I could kiss her
for letting me hear
the angels' wispering
new moon rises in libra
promising love and money


The wind lifts 
her curved nudity hidden
in the water curtain:
I touch the strings that whisper
love in each falling drop


Beyond the shanties
on a valley road looking
to the mountain
nostalgically opens
the window to the river


Afternoon
dancing on the waves--
receding sea
then a lasing roaring wall
of water, returning sea


Twisting tassels
round her finger fears coming
of night in bed
octopus grips the body
and buckles into disgrace


Autumn or spring rees
shed dried leaves to grow new ones
with lush waves flowers
bloom to with in a day
like longings in ageing heart


Journeying
with no sense of direction
no control over
destiny or destination
I can't take pride in flickers


Living dust smoke
and white darkness I know
I just flicker--
stand alone like a lighthouse
lost in the fog of seashore

She hears the voice
of unrealised bliss in
the coos of  koel
at the window sill this evening
rains love and delight


His messge to meet
at moonrise among flowers
sparkles a secret
on her smiling face passion
glows with charming fervour


She is no moon yet
she drifts like the moon, takes care
of him from the sky--
meets him for a short, waxing
leaves him for a long, waning


Before going to bed
she looks too sad to have
any sweet dream:
they lonely lamp glints no love
and no star peeks through the curtain


Yearning to meet him
she turns a silk-worm spinning
love-silk in cold night--
stands in a shade melting tears
like a candle, drop by drop


Stains of dried dewy
tears on the eyelids tell of
the load on her mind:
clothed in spring the willow twigs
reveal the changed relation


Locked in the shadows
of unrolled curtains her love
in the lone boudoir:
she plays tunes on the guitar
flowers fade at the windows


She senses all things
changing as she passes through
the city again:
should I loave the old house or
lie in the grave before death


Shining on rose-leaves
silken layer of dw drops:
gloss of her mauve smile
she blushes when I tell her
beauty of the blooming rose


Greeting the first rains
after months of soaring heat
the lone rose flutters
little petals to the ground
echoing our first embrace


Roses await
sun and wind to clear
the balefu; fog:
I fear she'll say no
to my love again


The fragrance of rose
seeps through the windows
coupled with full moon
adds to my delight though I'm
alone in my bed tonight


The sea maid's dance
lost in the noise of music:
drinking anger
his greencard holder son
in the marriage reception


Hidden in the books
are my hopes of tomorrow
when very alone
and left out I can still stand
without filial critches


With dull eyes
and listless smile
she lets him kiss
the dried lips
in gentle love


The monsoon wetness
aggravates my allergies:
I can't enjoy sky
or fragments of rainbow
arching the afternoon


Waving down
a leaf settles between
her breasts I envy
its audacity to reach
where lips sense warmth of love


One thousand miles
travelling together
in tense silence
he and she contemplate
the next round of duel


Burning without warmth
one more hot and sweaty spell
of summer, restless
down with stroke, without light, fan
exhausted, alone in bed


Slung-jawed awake
two grinning skeletons sit
bolt upright in bed
hear the shrieks next door but
too scared to call the police


Night's prisoned friends
keep me awake with planes
flying over the Ashram
every now and then I watch
the direction matters


The nightly ghosts crowd
my mind's passage to forge
gods' names in duguise
I fail to scan the face
of thought and life in the dark


A cloud-eagle
curves to the haze
in the west
skimming the sail
on soundless sea


The chill outside
deprives me of the bright moon
I breathe in my fears:
asthmatic bouts haunt and
jealousy itches the throat


An insomniac
weak with desires and prayers
hears the heartbeats
rising fast with dark hours
survives one more nightmare


There's little save
poetry and prayer
to put up with
rising darkness in and out
and God too is silent


The yellowing patch
on the lawn won't green with
pesticides--
the water infects the roots
even I am drying up here


Watching the waves
with him she makes an angle
in contemplation:
green weed and white foam break
on the beach with falling mood


The power goes off
suddenly summer heat chokes
in bed sleepless she turns
undoing a hook or two
of her tight blouse


The sleep is buried
in sex for diversion
yoga or prayers:
the dawn preserves bitter eyes
in the day's bleak passage


Sleeps the night with
desires wrapped in blanket--
spring in the eyes
gods couldn't change the rhythm
of the body and its needs


She visits
a beauty parlour
to erase wrinkles
and returns with the same
wintry darkness


Crudity 
of the stone conceals
grace of nudity
the image of Kali
reveals to her devotee


Fears to see
his own image in
her eyes so
avoids seeing her again
betrays his cowardice


Dancing on
the car top a girl
holds the mike
to express her love
twists the audience


I can't cement cracks
nor save the frames from collapse:
the wreck reveals the myth
I need not knit new dreams
if truth's so cold and stingy


Awake in dream time
he looks for the candle-
love's invitation
lighting up in the dark
and sings the body's song



Awaiting the wave
that'll wash away empty hurs
and endless longing
in this dead silence at sea
I pull down chunks of sky








copyright

Dr R K Singh
Professor and Head, Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences
Indian School of Mines
Dhanbad 826004
India