A collection of R.K. Singh's haiku first published in a trilogy by Bahri Publications in 1999

1. EVERY
STONE
DROP
PEBBLE
R.K.SINGH
(NEW DELHI: BAHRI PUBLICATIONS, 1999)

2. Eternity
too short to quench
love
He walks down the aisle
looking for the nave
to kneel and slide out
After prolonged heat wave
sky watery explosion
earth lovely doom
Seasonal change viral
suffering, realignment
with doctor’s bill
They sculpture psyche
in the city of dumb dreams:
idols sweat in sun
Pulling out white hairs
she reminds increasing age:
time’s fragrance unchanged
Each morning the sun
2

3. shines through window panes, revives
the dream for verses
Smell of kamini
in front of my house excites:
hummingbirds mate
Cloud over cloud
darken earth and hide stars:
dawn and dust one
I see a finger
point to the eye in her breast
mist lingers on lips
No letters today--
addresses of his dead friends
greying in diary
She wraps nudity
in sari turns graceful:
love-touch in colour
Each stone, drop, pebble
waste of life in worldly self:
haiku nothingness
After the red
the dog, the girl
knotted double face
3

4. In the darkness of backyard
he searches his shadow:
summer clouds overhang
I stir the water
to pierce clouds in it:
throw memory stones
He has no wind-rope
to tie waves in the net:
sand melts beneath feet
Stealthy invaders
chill surge of river and dreams:
the year waves good bye
Reshuffling the shelves
it’s only dust in alleys
sneezing scholarship
She reads my age in
the synthetic dark of moustache
and whitening chest
Willow summer-sways
its bough half-rests on the pole
light goes off again
Her wet lingerie reveals
more than her body:
I drown in her sea
4

5. She undresses in
dim light perfumes her body
fills room with herself
Silence is sound in
the blank of unthinking mind
poetry is peace
The child lost in
letters and numbers
spins new designs
She waves a quick smile
from her new Maruti
tyres screech
The sun vanished
in the blue morning couldn’t last
the flower’s smile
The nightqueen fragrance
seeps in from the windows
my bedroom blooms
He sees the ape
in the glass self-satisfied
5

6. his own image
The blue white dapples
on the canvas seeing
the eye of silence
Sipping gin
he says he loves sex each night
but hates the smell
Seeking good news
I watch the lines on my palms
taking new turns
They are skinny but
skilful, can’t be swatted:
their vibrations haunt
He sweeps yellow leaves
or gathers years in a heap
burns to merge with dust
After hours of power-cut
cobwebs in the room
swing in thanks
Seismic lab
a network of cobweb:
no earthquake for long
6

7. My bedroom
a maze of cobweb
spiders breed
Her smile
arrival of spring
at the bower
The red light is on:
they all have secrets to hide
no use peeping in
In nightly silence
glides the airbus through the clouds
trail of white smoke
After sleepless night
a drowsy sun tears
the morning sky
A dead man
can’t keep standing
lies in dust
A lamp floating on
river breast in bridal grace
waves in the gloaming
7

8. Looking for Taj in grains
through sand storm find history
trapped between toes
Shining from the blade of grass
a drop on earth’s breast:
tribute to sun
With changing weather
they look for sun and shade both:
chameleon tune
I know waves that roar
I live through silence of shore:
the sea grows in me
I felt her fingers
the strings of my son’s guitar
unplayed for a long time
She hides the mirror
with rose and lipstick
and keeps her fiction
Joy of union
reduces as rhythm falls
restless embers grow
After hurried
8

9. lovemaking we drift to sleep:
our backs to each other
Flickers of peace hide
god in heart like running brook
love in nudity
Monsoon shower
after a long heat wave
monotony breaks
Ripe on the branches
mangoes fall one by one
end of the season
The mirror is so small
I can’t see the ocean
beyond my own look
It’s utter helplessness
true, but to survive
one must be tamed
Dragons play whirlwind
among clouds-- meet and rain
unite earth and sky
Coal grows golden
each moment in quiet corners
raw wind singes
9

10. It hangs like a drop
any moment evaporates
love is gullible
Morning mist rests
on a swathe of pond
lone fish looks for sun
The moon glows and
heat wave all through night scalds leaves
kills butterflies
A butterfly
restless over the other
trying to console
The mynahs
herald the day clamouring
for moths
Vacating the house
he leaves four decades
no thanks to any
Not age but
years of worries—
his furrowed face
The sun rolls
on waving Ganges
whitens love-hope
10

11. The leaves sway
to fly like birds
free in the sky
Long forgotten
the beginning and the end:
exist in middles
He closes the eyes
expanding inner space
a short-cut tour
Red oleander and
hibiscus calling morning
to Kali
After lunch
stretching legs in cubbyhole
like a frog
Looking lovingly
she bends his head down to hers
twines like a creeper
Unable to change time
my watch doesn’t move
moment at will
The solitary bird
like uninspiring tracks moves
alien homeward
11

12. The rains
wash the paints
that hide the face
Tending the hooks
she blushes to see
the line of jewels
Making love
she presses with her nails
a sparrow sports
The frog in mirror
slips by damp towel
cold sets in slippy hands
Half-fleshed faces
track from behind the windows
rawness of journey
Summer turns prettier
after duststorm and rain
night alloys with cool colours
The leaves have turned moth
we cross-leg with crabbed wishes
erase one more year
12

13. The half moon
on her neck reminds of love
before departure
Falling chalk over head
clouds understanding: eyes itch
and nostrils run
Rains leave soil soft—
seeds sprout with first sun
pearly dawns
Among the white hairs
a solitary black one
keeps her hope alive
The fig of life with
roots above and branches below:
man and woman one
Frosted faces
dissolve in stale rain clutching
female body
13

14. We lie together
filling our body with
each other’s sensation
Celebrating
forgettable memories
at public expense
After morning walk
the trio gossip each day
fresh revelations
14