GARGI SARKHEL BAGCHI

 

 

Where The Breath Breaks

 

In the beginning,

there was neither spark nor void,

only the soft murmur of wanting.

A hunger without name

folded upon itself,

and from that folding

came light.

And shadow.

All the aching in between.

We are the afterthought of that first sigh,

the mist caught between dream and waking,

brief as a tear on the eye of the Infinite.

The stars are not distant;

they are the echoes of our own bones,

singing backwards through time,

calling us home.

Every stone hums with an ancient grief,

every blade of grass knows more of forever

than the wisest mind.

Existence is not to be

but it is to listen for the spaces between heartbeats,

to fall in love with what we can never hold,

to kneel before the smallness of our knowing

and still, somehow, rise.

And the universe?

It is the wound and the balm,

the fire and the ash,

the silence that remembers our names

even when we have forgotten it.

Breathe –

for even the gods

are made of this breaking.

 

Ashes Of Stars

 

We are stitched from a silence older than time,

ghost-threads of forgotten suns –

each breath a hymn, each thought a ripple

through the black, breathing cloth of nowhere.

Existence –

a slow dream spun by a mindless loom,

the thread pulled taut by hunger,

by wonder,

by the ache of being seen.

The universe hums not with answers,

but with the pulse of the question:

Why?

And how still?

And who sings first – the bird or the branch?

We are stardust, yes, but also the pause

between two dying notes;

the hollow in the bone,

the glint of frost that vanishes before dawn can know it.

Somewhere, a star dies with our name inside it.

Somewhere, a child dreams the world into breaking.

Somewhere, the atoms that built a mountain

remember the touch of fire and water

but forget their own weight.

Existence is not a place,

but a trembling,

a hand that almost touches,

a song that almost remembers its beginning.

And the universe?

It leans in closer

every time we dare to listen

and says nothing.

But it is the most beautiful nothing

we have ever known.

 

GARGI SARKHEL BAGCHI

 

GARGI SARKHEL BAGCHI: Gargi Sarkhel Bagchi is the winner of the ‘Reuel International Poetry Prize 2022’, ‘Indian Women Rising Star for Literature 2023’, ‘National Chanting Bards Award, 2023’, ‘R.P. Sharma’s Poetic Present for Poetry Rendition 2023’, ‘Poiesis Award for Excellence in Literature 2023, 2024 & 2025’, ‘Panorama International Youth Literature Award 2024’, ‘WE Illumination Award 2024 for Language, Discourse, Participation’, ‘WE Gifted Poet Award 2024 for Magic of Poetry’, ‘Reverend Dr. Komal Masih Award 2024 for Best English Poetry Rendition’ and ‘Distinguished Poet Award 2025’. Her debut book of poems titled “Two Cents For My Thoughts” was launched at the prestigious Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, and won the ‘Rama Chowdhury Memorial Award for the Best English Poetry Collection 2023’ and the ‘Panorama Golden Book Award 2024’. She is the editor of ‘Book Reviews’ at the prestigious Yugen Quest Review literary magazine. Gargi’s writings have been featured in innumerable national and international publications. She has instituted two awards, one in honour of her late grandmother – ‘The Minati Banerjee Memorial Award for the Best Woman Poet / Writer’ and the other to honour her mother – ‘The Madhumita Sarkhel Award for the Best Book by a Woman Writer’.A university topper in the field of ‘German Language and Literature’, Gargi was one of six in the world to receive a fully funded DAAD scholarship to complete her second Master’s degree from the esteemed Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. The thesis she wrote there was published by GRIN Publishing House, Munich, and is available on Amazon globally. A German language educator for over 20 years, she is engaged full-time with Deutsch-Uni Online, Munich for students worldwide. Her strong German background enables her to translate stellar literary works into German, for instance, the prolific writer Jawaid Danish’s award-winning play “Yes, My Son Razi is Autistic”.