Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 7, Number 2. November 2024. ISSN: 2581-7094
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Gopal Lahiri
Dark, sleek, a tiny bird with a black
Hue and a white rump stays perched on wires,
Hiding the red patch behind the tails.
No harsh screeches, no more lengthy hooting
Repeating in loud stretches, up slurred notes
Map the morning projectiles.
The sunshine is illuminating and light
Rays dripping through the leafy veil,
Shrinking the carbon footprints
I need to learn the symphony of serenity.
Love and Light
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Gopal Lahiri
Rain falls from a low sky, in shade
And shower, the sighs sing aloud,
I fold my palms with love and care,
Fingers tracing owl’s gaze in every night.
In whispers, I ask a shadow to weep
Beside a night blooming flowers,
In dreams my love will find its way
With drowning stars in every night.
You stand there, wondering if I know
The light that wiles and tricks me,
I cannot hide when I touch the sky
Knowing how to disappear in every night.
The wind is strong, the letters are lost
Searching for home in the fading light
To reach my love, I’ll conceal truth,
Together we dance in every night.
Reading
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Gopal Lahiri
It’s me you miss most, the wind spells the same
For both of us. My crackle, my hiss, my sizzle,
My voice sends some key words you can sing,
In a canyon of tall trees, the ants stand quivering
On grass; if you can, walk into the distant horizon,
That gets things moving. This is a wooden stick.
I want to point out the troughs and peaks of your
life.
A sudden silence, we hear the whirr of bees, the
leaves
Falling on the desolate footpath; behind a sleeping
dog
The short man scribbles on the brick wall, I am
Unable to read. Birds gather under the bridges and
Drink their own shadows from the canal water.
I dump my own shadow in a scratched waste bin
And walk away. The sun sends me love and light.
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Bio:
Gopal
Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor,
writer and translator with 31 books published, including eight solo/jointly
edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred
journals and anthologies globally. His poems are translated in 18 languages and
published in 16 countries. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry
in 2021. He has received Setu Excellence Award, Pittsburgh, US, in poetry in
2020. He has been conferred First Jayanta Mahapatra National Award on
literature in 2024 for his significant contribution in Indian English Writing.
His collection of poems Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets has
received Pan Asian Ukiyoto awards.
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