Sunday, 31 January 2021

Three Poems by Gopal Lahiri

 




Reorder

 

I still remember the mahogany colour of your smile

voices utter monosyllables, the absence of meaning-

the frail walls are pink and nervous.

 

A shadow of time waits with my words

hidden in the last cabin,

the corridor gets frozen, numbed.

 

The elevator door never opens,

there are ruptures in the ceiling,

mystic alphabets break away in numbers.

 

The fugitive winds tell it’s not you,

eyes strive for the sudden shift in fortune

whispers prepare you for the world outside.

 

Painted walls rip open the buried maps

living is history now,

candle lights rearrange our own molecule.

 

 

Photo Frame

 

There is the light, the unhurried air.

 

My fingers run up and down in a frenzy,

grandfather is there on the photo frame

reclining in leisure on the easy chair,

there is a long pause,

unmindfully I drop ink on my coat.

 

Stirring the reservoir of memories,

bifocals and graphite pencils reclaim

the wall clocks and iron chest,

outside shadows taper across the grey sky

there the clouds drip haiku of rain.

 

Something like tapping a vein,

the whispers of yearning sweep across

from one room to the other,

still remembering the quiet walk on the

pavement holding my hands.

 

There is this soft heartbeat of serenity.

 

 

Unheard Echo

 

We are living history

I long, long for that floating metaphors

 

Each punctuation is aroma of wet earth, dry grain
that makes the chair of hay bales.

 
Perhaps, the story I’m looking for
is buried beneath the lies of anonymous shadow.

 

The unheard echo makes way for sleep

behind the fluorspar wall, on the granary floor.

 

Your smile converse in the language of dark kites.

evening sky opens a light-yellow page,

puts words inside.

 

The rusted lampshade fills memories

self-imposed halo flickers, seeds breaking into the heart,
sounds of darkness linger in nothingness.

 

Chilling hiss of the abandoned planets bring

the treasured moments, the romance of chipped poems.


©Gopal Lahiri




Gopal Lahiri is a Kolkata-based bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator. He is the author of 22 books published including fourteen volumes of poems in English (includes four edited/ jointly edited anthology of poems) and eight volumes of poems and prose in Bengali, His poems, translations and book reviews have been published across various journals (includes Indian Literature) worldwide. Recent credits: Ink Sweat & Tears, Catjun Mutt Press, Verse Virtual, Borderless Journal, Different Truth, Piker Press, Scarlet Leaf Review, The Daily Sun, Spillwords, Internationaltimes, NewYork Parrot, Tourvallie Review, Indian Periodicals, Setu, Muse India, Glomag and elsewhere. He has recently edited the book titled ‘Jaillianwala Bagh- Poetic Tributes’. He has attended various poetry festivals in India and abroad. His poems are translated in 12 languages.

https://www.facebook.com/glahiri

htttps://www.gopallahiri.blogspot.com

twitter@gopallahiri

instagram@Gopal_Lahiri



No comments:

Post a Comment

Three Poems by John Patrick Robbins

  You're Just Old So you cling to anything that doesn't remind you of the truth of a chapter's close or setting sun. The comfort...