Hazara Singh (1922- ) As A Poet Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Hazara Singh who made his humble beginning long ago
Has traversed a long trajectory
With his publication in 1980
Just with Aspirations
And since then has been attempting to write verses in English.

A poet Francis Baconian and Bertrand Russellian,
He goes into the toes of theirs,
Inducting in knowledge and wisdom,
Fact and fiction,
Logic and reason.

A poet humanistic, he is nationalistic and patriotic too
As for his connection with the freedom struggle
And being a freedom fighter,
He participated in, was jailed and his certificates confiscated,
With leaves of freedom-struggle turning into poetry-lines.

But the problem is in it
He repeats the poems in his new collections even,
A poet re-publishing them and adding to
And as thus bringing out collections,
But instead of something distils it and drips out.

A self-published poet, he has appeared in journals
And in poetic creativity,
His movement is at snail’s pace,
Going with, slow and steady wins the race,
A poet who has come of age.

A formerly head of the Deptt of Languages, Journalism and Culture
Of Punjab Agriculture Univ., Ludhiana,
Singh’s poetry is of the head
Rather than the heart,
Carving his niche himself.

The influence of Bacon’s The Essays
And of Russell’s The Impact of Science on Society,
He learns through age and ageing,
Age and experience,
Fact and fiction of life.

Russellian knowledge and wisdom,
Nehruvian thought and action,
Quintessential in understanding his poetic space,
A writer of the works,
Yearnings (1987) , Expectations (1999) , Destination (2007) .

An old and aged man, Hazara Singh writes
Keeping in view, art or art’s sake not,
But art for didacticism,
A writer with a didactic purpose,
Writing experience-based verses for posterity sake.

His recreation lies it in healthy living and healthy thinking,
The zest of living,
A lover of Rupert Brooke,
He is an admirer of the war poets and war poetry,
But not devoid of humanistic ideals and values.