Ezekiel's first book, "The Bad Day", appeared in 1952. He published another volume of poems, "The deadly man" in 1960. After working as an advertising copywriter and general manager of a picture frame company (1954–59), he co-founded the literary monthly "Jumpo", in 1961. He became art critic of "The Times of India" (1964–66) and edited "Poetry India" (1966–67). From 1961 to 1972, he headed the English department of Mithibai College, Bombay. "The Exact Name", his fifth book of poetry, was published in 1965. During this period he held short-term tenure as visiting professor at University of Leeds (1964) and University of Pondicherry (1967). In 1969, at the Writers Workshop, Ezekiel published his "Three Plays" which includes "Nalini, Marriage Poem, The Sleep-walkers". A year later, he presented an art series of ten programmes for Indian television. In 1976, he translated Jawaharlal Nehru's poetry from English to Marathi, in collaboration with Vrinda Nabar, and co-edited a fiction and poetry anthology. His poem "The Night of the Scorpion" is used as study material in Indian and Colombian schools. Ezekiel also penned poems in ‘Indian English’ like the one based on instruction boards in his favourite Irani café. His poems are used in NCERT and ICSE English textbooks. His poem 'Background, Casually' is considered to be the most defining poem of his poetic and personal career.