DEGENERATION

When gods are out to teach me a lesson
where to go to pray or find relief?

my prophet friend predicts each day good
and the future fulfilling, the palmists find
the sun, saturn, venus, and rahu hostile

they seek money for rituals, stones, or mantras
while God gives us the best in life gratis

I can't change man or nature, nor the karmas
now or tomorrow they all delude
in the maze of expediency and curse
stars, fate, destiny, or life before and after
degenerating the mind, body, thought, and divine

--R.K.Singh

SEASON'S PRICK

Unpruned roses
and unknown grasses
make me aware
of the emptiness
the dusk in her room sounds:

she searches out
her shadow in
the rising moon

I feel the season's prick


--R.K.Singh

LET'S MEET

Before the bananas ripe

let's meet at least once

lest the fog dampen passion

let's water our love

the sun is bright this morning

and night's promising

let's meet and unfreeze winter

of years, drink some wine

restore warmth of faith and hope

and heal the breaches

without black goggles for seeing

let's meet at least once

--R.K.Singh

SPIRITUAL FLICKERS

SPIRITUAL  FLICKERS

Ram Krishna Singh

Plodding  away at
season’s conspiracies
life has proved untrue
with God an empty word
and prayers helpless cries


I wish I could live
nature’s  rhythm free from
bondage of clock-time
rituals of work and sleep
expanding haiku present


on the prayer mat
the hands raised in vajrasan
couldn’t contact God—
the prayer was too long and
the winter night still longer


the mind creates
withdrawn to its own pleasures
a green thought
behind the banyan tree
behind the flickering lust


I can’t know her
from the body, skin or curve:
the perfume cheats
like the sacred hymns chanted
in hope, and there’s no answer


unknowable
the soul’s pursuit hidden
by its own works:
the spirit’s thirst, the strife
the restless silence, too much


unable to see
beyond the nose he says
he meditates
and sees visions of Buddha
weeping for us


the mirror swallowed
my footprints on the shore
I couldn’t blame the waves
the geese kept flying over head
the shadows kept moving afar


the lane to temple
through foul drain, dust, and mud:
black back of Saturn
in a locked enclosure
a harassed devotee


not much fun—
cold night, asthmatic cough
and lonely Christmas:
no quiet place within
no fresh start for the New Year


Published in Lynx, 29:1, February 2014;  Poetry Nook, Vol.4, 2014 ;  Nazar Look, Year 3, Issue 35, November 2013

http://www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/291Solo.html

http://issuu.com/kirim-tatar-kitaplari/docs/nazar_2013_11_online/1?e=2254043/5569942

KAISERS

I've stripped light of the lamp
apologized for
the conspiracy of night
kaisers sleep with

--R.K.Singh

ALONE

going alone 
an empty shadow 
in the mall 

--R.K.Singh

NOW AND THEN

I was God-sent

she said when

I met her first

now she says

hell with you

--R.K.Singh