Meet our August 2008
Featured Poet

Mukesh Williams

"It is always difficult to represent our feelings through words. Sometimes the poet is so caught up in observing this process that he forgets to represent the experience itself. The final goal of the poet, however, must be to encompass the universe itself, for the creative process will not accept anything less." Mukesh Williams

Mukesh Williams is an internationally renowned poet whose writings possess a subtle blend of modern and postmodern perspectives. It is possible to see in his oeuvres the influence of philosophers like Nietzsche, Foucault, MacIntyre, Derrida, Krishnamurti, Feyerabend, Rorty, Hayden White and others. Former professor John G. Cawelti of Chicago University sees in his poetry "universal feelings of love and longing" that are released through a fine blend of Greek and Indian allusions. His poetry can be self-reflexive, passionate, oblique or witty depending on the subject and the mood. At times he can observe the individual self quite closely, and at other he can be rather iconoclastic and populist. Though he has written many poems on a single theme, each poem stands out in its singular totality expressing the transience of the moment. Some Canadian poetry editors have found a unique blend of Asian and European elements in his poetry.

Poetry

The evocative lyricism and controlled cynicism in his poetry has to do in large measure with his childhood experiences in the sylvan surroundings of Allahabad, India and his expatriate experiences in urban Tokyo, New York, Santa Barbara and other places. The sense of home and the knowledge of being adrift on a sea of change provide a tension in his poems and release a wistful longing in the denouement. Born in an Indian Christian family in Allahabad, he grew up in the multi-religious environment of Civil Lines and George Town. Early in life he developed a syncretistic approach to culture and civilization that allows him to incorporate the mythical liquefaction of the Ganga River, the shehnai of Bismillah Khan and the ethos of cathedrals and churches. His ability to synthesize disparate cultural and religious traditions and yet express them frame-by-frame, finds expression in his choice of words, themes, metaphors and symbols. His free verse and satirical poems are as engaging as his rhymes and haiku. Some of his symbols relating to life, energy, death and moksha are drawn from the philosophies and mythologies of both the Asian and European worlds. Williams is best known for his flowing rhythms, mellifluous sounds and intellectual sophistication in poetry. His poems deal with the native traditions of India and the diasporic experiences of people living in the United Kingdom, Lebanon, United States and Japan capturing the essence of their lonely human existence and their conflict and cooperation with social systems and institutions.

As one reviewer of his Nakasendo and Other Poems has observed, "Williams has been able to capture the sweet, flowing rhythms of both the English and Indian vernaculars and dexterously fuse them with Japanese minimalism to create mellifluous poetry. Here we may be reminded of the early Romantics, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound as well as some of the Bengali poets like Rabindranath Tagore and Bishnu Dey and Japanese poets like Ogiwara Seisensui and Takahashi Shinkichi." His recent poems show a dexterous use of metaphors, and an insider's perspective of important cities of the world like Delhi, Tokyo and Santa Barbara. He believes that artistic representation must take place through the medium of language where both the denotation and connotation of words play an important role. Williams points out that, "It is always difficult to represent our feelings through words. Sometimes the poet is so caught up in observing this process that he forgets to represent the experience itself. The final goal of the poet, however, must be to encompass the universe itself, for the creative process will not accept anything less." His poetry combines the emotional intensity and minimalism of the east and rational clarity and egalitarianism of the west. Functioning within a modern and postmodern framework, his poems have not only inspired the young generation around the world, but also given a new vigor to Indian aesthetics and Indian writing in English, per se.

His poetry, especially his two books of poems, Nakasendo and Other Poems (2006) and Moving Spaces, Changing Places (2007), "reverberate with the unrealized potential of the universe." He has published poems in both national and international journals such as Campus Poetry, Youth Times, Indian Verse, The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Muse India, Centrifugal Eye, The Blue Fog Journal of Poetry, Foliate Oak, Plankton, and Best Poem: A Literary Journal. His works have been quoted in reputed journals around the world. In 2008 the World Poetry Directory of UNESCO selected him as one of the emerging new voices in international poetry. Professor Shyamala A. Narayan mentions his book Nakasendo in an article entitled 'India' in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Volume 42, Issue 4, 2007, pp. 79-107. Williams is now working on three books of poems namely Bharatvarsha, The French Café and The Ganga. He can be contacted either through his official website or via the following email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Selected Extracts from Pre-Publication Evaluation and Recent Book Reviews

…you have done a most interesting job in synthesizing the diverse strains of language and imagery that are a part of your cultural heritage, India, the western classical tradition and the English language. The way in which you blend Greek allusions with Indian stories to evolve universal human feelings of love and longing is very expressive and moving.

-John G. Cawelti,
Former Professor of English, University of Chicago

The poems of Mukesh Williams reverberate with the unrealized potential of the universe. They are self-reflexive, witty, passionate, oblique, and filled with the surprise of the moment. Since these poems were never meant for publication they retain an uncontrived freshness and immediacy. I am always struck by his openness to new topics, to new experiences and to new people. I am also fascinated by his open-heartedness, which is to a large extent related to his ingenuity and poetic creation. He loves nature and is intrigued by the trivial things in life-be it a face, a leaf or a train. Nothing seems to be excluded from his sharp observation He seems to easily connect disparate things and give them a special meaning. Who can say, the deepest meaning of things in this world might lie in ordinary things of life! His poetry creates a new genre, a new way of looking at familiar things. Though his poems are slightly reminiscent of traditional Japanese poetic style and sensibility, they also posses a highly intellectual quality. At times they are succinct and poignant and at others suddenly jump into witticism and subtlety. There is a typical minimalism and symbolism in his style that makes his diction racy and evokes diverse associations in the mind. His poetry reflects his innermost feelings and inspires us to transcend the mundane world of reality and enter into a world of spiritual experience even when the subject is palpably secular.
-Kaoru Kinoshita, Soka University

About Nakasendo and Other Poems, 2006

The new collection of fifty poems by Mukesh K. Williams written between 1975 and 2006 covers three decades of lived experience in eleven cities and two countries. These beautifully crafted poems possess a focus and sharpness that most Indian poetry invariably lacks. There is no glibness here but a pursuit of the mot just, the exact word, to capture the experience directly and without much ado. As Williams points out in the Acknowledgements, that these poems are directly connected to his "Indian and Japanese experiences" and support the idea of "inhabiting these two cultures." It is precisely the fact of inhabiting the two cultures that gives a Diasporic uniqueness to these poems. The subtle interplay of Indian emotional intensity and Japanese controlled minimalism provides a fresh nuance to the imagery and a new twist to the denouement. …Nakasendo poems are a must read for those seeking a fresh perspective and a new voice.
-Gemini Yadav, Negotiating the Nakasendo, Boloji, 2007