Dr. Bijender Singh is a bilingual author who writes in English and Hindi apart from some lyrical poems in Haryanvi - a dialect of Haryana. He is an English lecturer having a poetic heart. He is the editor of an international refereed multidisciplinary e-journal (expressionjournal.com). He has written one voluminous literary book, two poetry books and has ten edited anthologies to his credit.

Bijender Singh’s second poetry book titled Confusing Poetry is a bit quizzical in themes and contents as the literal meanings of the poems are quite different from the message conveyed behind to the readers by the poet. This poetry book has forty-five poems and most of the poems are very concise and leave behind very beautiful messages, though these appear much tangling to a reader, at times.

Bijender Singh has glorified womanhood in his poetry and his poetry paves way as guidance how to live our life. His second poem “Half of My Life” tells how a human being spends his whole life in philanthropy having altruistic attitude toward others and thus, ignores his own self for the sake of others:

Half of my life
Went in sacrifice.
One said, show?
First me, then, wife
And remaining
For my kids,
You know? (“Half of My Life” p.10)

Bijender Singh has penned down some philosophical views through his poetry. He has written how to live a successful, peaceful and satisfactory life. “Half of My Life”, “Return Values”, “Rules of Life”, “Dance and Dancers”, “Life is Like a Train”, “Misunderstandings” and “Teenager’s Life” etc. poems deal with one or the other issues of life. He writes in the poem “Money is Honey”:

If you are pauper
Nobody cares.
If you have money
Everybody wants shares (“Money is Honey”, p.24)

Love, motivation, and relationships also occur as dominant themes in his poetry. He is a critic of the follies and evils of the society and criticizes some issues of the society. He emerges as a critic in the poems “Strange World”, “Double Faces”, “Words on Garments” and “A City Dog”. He has criticized on the garments of those boys, girls and people who purchase clothes with some such words printed on them which attract others immediately but the beholders imbibe those words with an eye of contempt. He criticizes how some uneducated people or even educated youngsters wear clothes with the objectionable words such as “Playboy” even not knowing the real meanings of the words whose they become the mobile carrier in ignorance or take it a matter of pride. He points his fingers at the parents also when they ignore such things knowing everything. Here is another example:

Another girl like a nymphet on hips
‘No Entry’.
And shame for the duck
Who went to the extent
Roamed about smilingly with word
‘Fuck’ (“Words on Garments”, p.41)

As a whole, it can be asserted that Bijender Singh’s Confusing Poetry is a must read poetry book for all the poetry lovers. Its language is somewhere very easy to follow but it becomes a bit difficult to get understood the layered meanings of few poems due to abstruse themes hidden behind the words. In short poems, he takes us towards the other side of the meanings of those poems. He has written his this book for all keeping in view the less educated stratum and the well-educated people. Thus, all should read this book and must enjoy the amalgam of flight of reality and imagination in his book. He has carved the words of his poetry very decorously.

Works Cited:

Singh, Bijender. Confusing Poetry. Allahabad, Cyberwit.net, 2013. pp. 1-60. Print. ISBN: 978-81-8253-451-3