GOPAL LAHIRI

 

 

New World

 

United we stand as women on the earth

hundreds of ribs housed in our body.

 

We march past, we move on as human

with diverse culture, beliefs and ways.

 

We dig and unfold history, the layers

filled with despair, injustice and abuse.

 

Our hands passing over the earth, gathering

seeds of freedom, distribute the love-tickets.

 

What we see now is the whole world

swirling back from gloom, from dimness.

 

We are doing from the deepest of our heart

united we unfurl the flag of a free world.

 

For all the women, for all the nation,

all for one and one for all in this planet.

 

Aroma

 

I thought the future would smell like salty breeze

as all the rivers drifting down to the blue ocean.

 

I thought the future would smell like cut grass

when the sunlight comes like a therapy.

 

I thought the future would smell like wet soils

as we drenched on the garden in the unseasonal rain.

 

I thought the future would smell like oranges

as we collected them while visiting the orchards.

 

I thought the future would smell like freshly

baked cookies comes with the morning tea.

 

I thought the future would smell like black coffee

as we read our love poems in the coffee house.

 

I thought the future would smell like jasmine

and peonies floating into the seas of our time.

 

GOPAL LAHIRI

 

GOPAL LAHIRI is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 32 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred fifty 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 and Best of Nets for poetry 2025. 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. His Selected Poems was published recently from CLASSIX, New Delhi.