Mukesh Williams

Mukesh Williams Poems

Mukesh Williams Biography

Mukesh Williams is a professor of English in the Faculty of Letters at Soka University, Japan. He is also a distinguished poet, fiction writer and a political analyst. His poems have appeared in Campus Poetry, Youth Times, Indian Verse, The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Muse India, The Stephanian, Udichi, Indian Verse, The Lyric, Impressions, Kavya Bharati, The Istanbul Literary Review, Centrifugal Eye, Autumn Leaves, Forward Press UK, Asahi Haikuist Network, Poetry Plaza, The Blue Fog Journal of Poetry, Foliate Oak, Plankton, The Daily Mainichi, and Best Poem: A Literary Journal. His short stories have been published in The Copperfield Review. His works have been quoted in reputed journals around the world. Professor Shyamala A. Narayan mentioned his book Nakasendo in an article entitled ‘India’ in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Volume 42, Issue 4,2007. Williams’ first book of poems, Nakasendo and Other Poems was published in 2006 from Writers Workshop, Calcutta. His poetry possesses a startling mixture of Japanese minimalism and Foucaldian coups and carries with it an uncanny postmodernist signature. His works have been quoted in reputed journals around the world from The Journal of Commonwealth Literature to The Other Voices International Project. He has been interviewed by many reputed poetry magazines including The Copperfield Review. Professor Williams is listed in the World Poetry Directory of UNESCO, Marquis Who’s Who in the World, UK Who’s Who, The Encyclopedia of Indian Creative Writers in English and The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England. As one literary critic has pointed out his poetry “reverberates with the unrealized potential of the universe” and captivates the reader with its mellifluous sounds and linguistic prowess. Professor John G. Cawelti of the University of Chicago finds his poems “very expressive and moving” especially the way he “blends Greek allusions with Indian stories to evolve universal human feelings of love and longing.” One of the early reviewers of his poems finds echoes of Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Rabindranath Tagore and Ogiwara Seisensui in his poetry. Williams’ evocative lyricism and controlled cynicism makes him a truly postmodern poet who captures and represents the pulse of our times. Williams has taught English, American Studies, and South Asia at St. Stephen’s College India, Keio University Japan and Soka University Japan. He has published research papers, editorials, poems and books on American Studies, India and Japan and delivered keynote addresses at international conferences. His co-authored book, Representing India: Politics, Identities, and Literatures, was released by Oxford University Press in January 2008 and since then has been favorably reviewed in Business India, Muse India, The Telegraph, The Hindu and other journals. He has many years of teaching experience at St. Stephen’s College Delhi, Keio University and Soka University. Poetry Nakasendo and Other Poems (2006) Moving Spaces, Changing Places (2007) Short Stories An English Paradise,2007 http: //www.boloji.com/stories/217.htm The Snow Leopard,2007 http: //literaryindia.com/Fiction/Short-Story/snow%20leopard.html A Remembered Life,2009 http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/A%20Remembered%20Life.htm Adviser to the Partitionist Cartographer (2009) http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/Adviser%20to%20the%20Partitionist%20Cartographer.htm The Library Story (2009) http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/The%20Library%20Story.htm The Maharajah’s Ephemera (2009) http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/The%20Majarajah's%20Ephemera.htm One Last Cherry Blossom (2009) http: //www.boloji.com/index.cfm? md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=3646 The Golden Lizard King (2009) http: //www.boloji.com/index.cfm? md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=3695 The Porcupine Hunt 2010 http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/The%20Porcupine%20Hunt.htm The Woman in the Painting (2010) http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/fiction/The%20Woman%20in%20the%20Painting.htm Short Stories for Children Mousy, Mousy Story http: //www.bolokids.com/2007/0454.htm The Rabbit and the Mouse http: //www.bolokids.com/2007/0474.htm The Frog and Duck Friendship http: //www.bolokids.com/2007/0458.htm The Birdies and the Boy http: //www.bolokids.com/2007/0475.htm The Yajigawa Frog http: //www.bolokids.com/2007/0459.htm Interviews “Round Robin Interview” with Guest Editor Karla Linn Merrifield in The Centrifugal Eye, Oh Canada! Volume 2, Issue 4, Autumn 2007 “Nothing is Outside the Framework of Poetry: An Interview with Mukesh Williams By Rohit Wanchoo, ” The Copperfield Review,2010 http: //www.copperfieldreview.com/interviews/williams.htm 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. About Representing India: Literatures, Cultures, and Politics,2008 He can be contacted through his blog site, http: //beyond-the-shadows.blogspot.com/)

The Best Poem Of Mukesh Williams

Tokyo Train Travel

With a hum and a buzz
The train surges,
Picks up speed,

Zooms and rackets
Through silhouettes,
Sniffing the torpor within.

In intervals of dozing lullaby
SNS communication
Escape the fantasy world.

New destinations arrive,
Proximities are redefined
And new geographies created.

The congeries suffocate
In self-absorbed silence,
Broken by makeup mirrors.

Alarmed by cedar pollen sneezes,
Jolted by guttural announcements,
Agape illusion shuffles.


The coaches slowly stop,
The sliding doors sibilate,
A frosty blast smacks the face.

Mukesh Williams Comments