Dr. Harki Dhillon

Featured Inlandia Writers Workshop Participant
Nominated by workshop leader Ruth Nolan, M.A.
Downtown Riverside Workshop

The Desert Flower

I am parched
Let it rain
But
Not too much
I want to flower
And bloom
Not die

–originally published in Phantom Seed magazine, issue #4, 2010

Surgery

Hands move
In controlled ecstasy
Immersed in
Nature’s beauty gone wrong.

The depths are exposed
Illuminated by
Artificial light,
The wisdom of years.

The dance of the fingers
Choreographed by experience,
Synchronous
With the aim
Of initiating
A cure
For a malady
Inflicting this
Unfortunate body
Farewell

–originally published in Slouching Towards Mt. Rubidoux Manor, Issue #3, 2010

* * *

Dr. Harki Dhillon, a prominent Orthopedic Surgeon practicing in Riverside, and a Riverside resident, has been attending the Inlandia Riverside Writers Workshop since early 2009, and is cherished by his associates as a highly valued member of the group to this day. He was introduced to the workshop by his friend/associate and noted local writer/historian Mary Curtin, another workshop attendee, to work on his memoir, which focuses on his life’s journey starting in India and continuing with his work as a physician there and in the United States/Inland Empire area. Soon after joining the writer’s workshop, he was inspired by the synergy of the workshop and his peers to begin writing poetry for the first time. His poetry takes an in-depth look at his personal and professional life, and he has recently published his first full-length book of poems, Invisible Hands: A Book of Poetry, published on Amazon Books in July, 2011 (www.amazon.com.) Perhaps the words of local, highly-respected poet and Professor of Creative Writing at University of California, Riverside Maurya Simon, gives the best overview of the scope and magic of Dhillon’s work:

Spare and direct, Dr. Harki Dhillon’s poems in his debut book address a broad spectrum of compelling subjects related to being alive in the 21st century. Whether he’s contemplating the mysteries of the divine or of the Universe, lamenting the ubiquitous suffering in the world, or celebrating daily pleasures, his deeply personal poems resonate with pathos. Dr Dhillon’s experience as an eminent surgeon imbues many of these poems with a sense of the fragility and vulnerability of the human body, while they also emphasize our resiliency and capacity to overcome pain and adversity. Feelings of love, despair, desire, remorse, angst, nostalgia, disillusionment, hope, loneliness and joy pervade these poems – reminding us of the heart’s complexity and endurance.

Dr. Dhillon is continuing to work on his memoir, which he hopes to publish in the near future, as well as generating more poetry for publication.