GOPAL LAHIRI - POEMS

Gopal Lahiri is a Kolkata- based bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 21 books published, 13 in English and 8 in Bengali, including three joint books. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. He has been invited in Sahitya Akademi, India, programmes and various poetry festivals including World Congress of Poets recently held in India. He works have been published in 12 countries and in 10 languages.

Compassion
​

​Kindness steps into your soul like a soft whisper
You do not know the destination.
 
What’s important in life, you cannot read out
In front of a void.
 
Mourners have left centuries ago
We are left with the alphabets of ashes.
 
Sit quietly before a closed window, imagine
The hidden prism emitting colours.
 
Testing the strength of life and looking
Back to find an answer.
 
Deep down, the unwritten verse nourishing the roots
Resonate in blue shroud.
 
Breathing feels connected with the lungs of Mother Earth,
Reseeds into the nectar of life.,
 
Kindness steps into your heart gently,
Melts there, transcending lights.
 

Tonight
​

​Tonight, kindness steps into my soul
Like a soft whisper,
There is no darkness, no rolling winds
Memories are plucked from the branches
Only the human waves cultivate the resilience.
 
Tonight, there will be no lumps of wound and pain,
No spilling of laughter, no shedding of tear
No stillness of tall trees,
Your name is written beside me in an open book
Our life is ready for penning.
 
Tonight, there will be no hatred, no war
The river water, the ripple of the sand dunes,
Flames and fire are one and the same,
A long winding road and the low octave
Songs are pressed between the pages of books.
Bringing solace beneath the promises.
 
Tonight, we know that tiny ants are
filled with the love of God,
love that records life in the gentle flow of the river
and now the silence hangs heavy
The wrinkles of skyline, the shades of inky blue
beneath the dawn of time.
 
Tonight, we are united by the bond
as the differences are calibrated
by the echoing universe,
the stars are bursting with memories,
only the hush of milky way is rising up,
It’s now pure bliss of the newfound life.
 

Rejoice
​

​Some days, you need to remind yourself-
Rejoice in the blessings of life,
 
Making a honest living and remembering God
All pervading force will be striding in your soul.
,
Taking the world up in your arms
Look upon time as another possibility,
 
Moon shadows spill silence over the scar
And think of each soul as blossoming flowers, rising stars,
 
Each moment is the music of the soul erasing
Days bleed into twilight, weigh nothing.
 
The songbirds are out in the open,
Truth lives on the edges off the meandering river.
 
Each word is a voice, each letter an identity,
Dream and desire are engraved in the vast landscape.
 

In the Age of Corona Virus
​

​No door no window no darkness
the sunrays pierce the skin and bone
moth-eaten leaves awash in abuse.
 
Ghost in the sunlight, a hidden enemy,
whispering in the ear,
soft words, sinister caresses 
a smile skids across your face.
 
I lived a long life- tiniest stream in your eyes,
pale lips turn into skies. 
looking for another word! 
 
You know that, 
the colour of the death is always blue, endless blue
intense, visceral, scary.
 
There lies a wondrous solution in the blue,
another world is possible,
you can hear, it’s breathing close.

Shelter of light
​

​One by one we pluck the memories in air
Laughter has spilled, the tears shed
The solitary sparrow weighs nothing in two palms.
 
Marvel at the quiet,
no longer bakeries belching smoke
no more graffiti, no traffic snarls.
 
Blood under your fingernails, collect words in silence
as if keeping the boats from leaving-
bad weather for sure.
 
The well-sharpened pencil tip can
penetrate the lighted rooms
when Grandfather is listening to the radio .
 
Then the needle in his flesh you don’t know
when it will jab again
surgical cottons
this endless moment has become a routine.
 
You don’t know, 
they’ve tricked you again at the door,
attacking you from behind,
you don’t know about the promise.
 
Nature is enjoying without human
life is only safe in the shelter of galaxy
night has dropped a few stars,
light them one by one in another universe