FEBRUARY 2026 V-11 N-11 Issue No. 131

 

AMBIKA TALWAR INTERVIEW

 

NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH

POET OF THE MONTH

AMBIKA TALWAR

NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Up to the last month we have published 130 monthly issues and 11 Year Book. I hope you would also like OPA very much, like hundreds of poets around the world.

AMBIKA TALWAR: Thank you NilavroNill. I am truly grateful to know you and to have found the group you manage so adroitly. I cannot fathom how you read so many poems and stories week after week – truly a smorgasbord of flavors, hues, variations on several themes. Thank you so much for your wise and careful handling of the world of poesia.

NILAVRONILL: Why do literature and poetry in particular interest you so much? Please give us some idea about your own perception of literature or poetry in general. And about your favorite writers in the growing phase of your life.

AMBIKA TALWAR: As you well know, the world of the literary arts is vast and all-encompassing. Where does one begin? Or where shall I?  May I choose to simply wander far in time? As it so happened and as you may know, we grew up reading stories by English and American authors. Also, the Panchatantra tales and select stories from our renowned Ramayana and Mahabharat. As I see it, our ancient texts/epics from all our respective cultures provide vast knowledge and wisdom, accessed through stories that inform our psyche and soul. Right there begins our journey. We travel with characters whose actions illuminate inner conflicts and resolutions. Therein are revealed actions and motifs that stir valor, sincerity, romance, eternal love, divinity. Again, the quest/ion: where are we headed? I have to say our education systems must broaden to include the Ramayana and Mahabharat as foundational literary texts that offer principles which illumine universal ways /principles – human errors and lessons and values to live by. It requires courage to do so. Essentially, as the world is in the midst of a new co-creation, we need to read ancient stories from many lands, not only Greek mythology. We read stories of diverse cultures. And, as it so happens, many scholars worldwide find joy and answers in our ancient texts. This inspires me. And I must add I. too, am behind in my reading. Listening to stories was always intriguing. As I reflect on our younger years, I note that many ancient narratives were composed in meter. And stories have rhythm too...maybe, we are little poets from our very early years.

NILAVRONILL: I think living together with a particular language is very much essential in writing poems in any particular language. And this experience makes a poet more mature in his or her literary writings. I would like to know your own experiences, especially when you write both in your own language and in a foreign language such as English.

AMBIKA TALWAR: To be honest, I write mostly in English. As you know after centuries of colonization by the ME and then the British, much was lost or hidden. And post-partition, people's attention turned to finding new ground, building their lives, creating work, raising families. This was not easy for millions and all our ancestral families – who had to leave their homes in the Punjab. I can only imagine what my grandparents went through. My parents were children in those years of turmoil. All such events inform our stories and sensibility. Life moves on. Years later, we show up. And I must note that the Indic/Vedic is the longest surviving civilization – inherent values are long-lasting, and such frequencies are woven or embedded in our DNA. I feel our inner core somewhere remembers even though we have been enculturated in "a foreign language", which has served us greatly too. And, somewhere our ancient languages call us to relish sounds and rhythms, which I am certain, will enhance my path onward.       I studied Hindi/Devanagari through college for which I am grateful. I really wish I could find that one collection of stories and essays that I loved, but it's lost. It was titled, Durgam Path ke Rahi, which means Travelers on Path of Strength. Sadly, I have not read much in Hindi since I left college. But I delight in reciting ancient stotras in Sanskrit – just a few that I know. This experience reveals to me the power of frequency, of vibration that moves our nadis (nerves). Our bodies are instruments of sound and light moved by rhythm, perspective, geometry, stillness and silence. Herein, we find our inner home, our shelter even as we are pulled away in different directions with noise, technology, overuse of apps. Our bodies are a poem, a multi-lingual, multi-tonal symphony. English is a part of it...and Hindi...any language one listens to rings in familiar tones. And I will continue to recite in Sanskrit – whose sounds stir in my whole being a sense of timelessness and joy. Such frequencies delight.

NILAVRONILL: Our Indian subcontinent had a colonial past. We too are the product of this colonial legacy through our education, social upbringing and political cultures. Consciously or even unconsciously most of our literary works bear this marks either explicitly or implicitly. I would like to know your own experience on this matter, in respect of your own literary works.

AMBIKA TALWAR: It's true what you say. For me it had become very important to gather stories from my parents, especially as I grew older. Sadly, father's gone and mother...well, she's in her own world. We live on different continents. I also spent 30 years teaching English composition at a community college in Southern California. Right here I was caught in my own quest and tensions asking "who am I?" and "where do I go from here?" It's as if I do not fit anywhere. And it's true – I am a misfit - loving it. I am okay with it as it offers a kind of universality. I suppose even my writing will not follow or replicate a style – I'm known in poetry circles to be an ecstatic poet. Surely, this voice is prevalent among Indian poets who speak of longing, joy, the journey of the beloved. So here we are creating our own paths. During my college years, I was really drawn to the Romantic poets, Yeats and also T.S. Eliot. Furthermore, I always find consolation in Rabindranath Tagore's "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.... Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake." I wish this for all my countries, all nations – so we, proud of our heritage, live with respect and decency. It is time for this. All over the world.

NILAVRONILL: Is it possible to put into words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?

AMBIKA TALWAR:  Yes. I'd say what moves me finds its expression in and through me. Another part of me would say – Yes, it is possible to put into words what one wishes to express. And then, it may not be exactly what one wanted to say, for it is also true that an idea redefines and refines itself, so that in the process we understand its variations and depth. Could such moments be an epiphany? Maybe. We have to allow for such surprises; they are fascinating. Or leave it be and see it arise as a delicate rush of wind.      Then there are moments when we muse...and a thought appears like a spark and suddenly it's gone. We reflect on what just happened. But we cannot find it – how frustrating this can be. Then it reveals itself in a single word, and this can also completely shake us up. We agonize over its absence. While a new thought is birthed...just like that. So magical. So, we must just let the other go where it wants to. Something else arrives in its own luminous presence. I know this has to be okay. This is also true of editing old poems – you give it new life when ragged words make no sense any more. Then you write about this new experience – like right now.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think the primary obligation of a poet should be to communicate with the temporal as well as with the eternal essence of life and the universe? If so, how can one fulfil that particular obligation?

AMBIKA TALWAR: Well, I might say yes this "primary obligation" of the poet is also the only one. One cannot have a temporal experience without the "eternal essence of life" as you delightfully phrased it. In order for one to exist, the other must also. Therefore, I'd say the poet exists in the whole sphere, which is both temporal and eternal for the substance is what is visible – but its essence may not be. It is only by acknowledging the Allness or wholeness that a poet can truly breathe the both-as-one...thereby give voice to the experiencing of being in state of eternity. Consider for example, the physicality of cardamon in tea; the tasting of it is caught in time – but this stirs the unnamable joy or memory or expression of satiation. And this satiation can last forever – perhaps return in another moment even 20 years later in the memory of how your grandmother made that one cup of tea. One afternoon. When the sun slanted in....  In each momentary taste, one lives an eternity. So, yes, it is the obligation of the poet to live in and access all or various states, for the work of the poet is to gift the world with its own essence so that people can face the consequences of living with virtues of beauty, courage, love....and so on. I say "face the consequences" because such moments of recognition illuminate our need to come out of our same-old used-up excuses – and shed our own nonsense. The world now calls for a magnanimous inner reset and transformation. Transmutation, actually.

NILAVRONILL: It is an established fact that every poet should create his or her own poetic language as an unique literary signature that would eventually keep him or her alive beyond his or her time. I would like to know your personal experience in this regard, and how can one achieve that unique literary language in his or her lifetime?

AMBIKA TALWAR: I love this question – am also entranced by it. I left it for the very end. As I was answering other questions, I felt yes, one's experiences develop one's own "language" or linguistic style. I sense my poems lead me to explore inner depth, the metaphors of self-becoming. Yes, my poetic voice is often ecstatic and imagistic. There is a rhythm in my verses, which you would experience when you read them aloud – and know when to pause; some say my poems are lyrical... musical. And I am particular about seeking the right word or the word finds me when I edit. That one word makes a huge difference to the containment of a poem, how it shapes a moment, elucidates its essence, and stands as an integrated whole in its frequency.     My verses flow in a way that a thought or an image leads from one to another and the meaning emerges or comes alive. Let me share some lines from poems of last month. One example: "Smile on lips become/ cleavage of worlds /reverenced tenderly/ as tears roll onto your palm..." And this: "Fire never dies – O Beloved. /Its embers dance as yours or my tears/ pour stories onto our palms." Additionally, my poems tend to be philosophical with an intent to illuminate hidden or sacred ways of being. You might see this in Sublimations, which became a process of revealing ideas that birthed themselves – next stage is in the editing. And, I might add the language we develop as poets is also a process of self-remembering. A friend noted that my poems tend to be very colorful – not black and white. I recognize we develop our voice and style as emerging from our psyche. This reflection of our life experiences is an ongoing adventure.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literary criticism has much to do with the development of a poet and the true understanding of his or her poetry?

AMBIKA TALWAR:  I realize that literary criticism has been very much lauded. Of course, critical approaches have some value, particularly when it comes to understanding linguistic sensibility and meaning making. So yes for the aesthetics and one's poetics. It helps poets who find new ground when they see what aesthetic appraisal can do to reveal critically the finesse and beauty in form that reveals meaning. Now suddenly somehow in my mind's eye flashes, Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" – its beauty, the narrative...and the philosophy...! Could this experience be ecstatic – to feel the constancy and newness of rhythm, meter, word, form...all leading to profound awareness and meaning making? My doubt or concern arises with critical approaches that apply ideological constructs today to works of art of many centuries ago. It feels reductive to me. This framework feels like taking away flavor, essence, and the core beauty of expression of what existed in another time. Perhaps, I am not clear about the purpose or poltical intent. Perhaps, my ecstatic voice sees life as many-hued and enriched in various ways – so we see beauty in variations expressed through time. Isn't poetry in essence a fine kaleidoscope? And when you know your language, you develop your own aesthetic – it becomes an innate flow... a stream with delicate play of jewels in the silent wilderness of time. As a poet, I wish to be enamored by my experience, by nature, by music that stirs my Soul, by what I choose to eat. We look for the fullness of life, how we are enriched and what takes us away from ourselves. Life and its rhythms nourish us if we are willing to accept that not everything has to be pleasant. Divine teachings rise from struggle and loss. Spiritual wisdom is birthed from rough traumatic events – not sweet pleasants moments. Feel both – you will know. The gift is poetry of the luminous. Hence, I say poiesis is alchemy, a sacred process of becoming, understanding, remembering how a life might be well-lived. And loved.

NILAVRONILL: Literature encompasses every aspect of life, it blends the various shades and textures of human aspirations as well as drawbacks. It also lights up the new horizons and new dimensions of human capabilities relentlessly. I would like to know your particular viewpoints; how do you relate all these in your own writings?

AMBIKA TALWAR: Lately, I have been perusing my poems of the last 25 years. I am actually surprised by some of them – our lives take us through many twists, turns, tragedies, turmoil and Tinkerbells. Some poems make me question what I was trying to or meaning to say? And some make me feel wonder and elation at the thoughts I expressed long time ago. Did I really say this? So, I am honing in on your central query about life's drawbacks and revealing of capacities. I find many of my poems speak about human awareness and awakeness, loss and longing. This longing keeps appearing in my poems. I truly feel the importance for us all to recognize who we are and the power we have to gradually shift awareness and to awaken. To not be bowed down by our limitations but harness our wisdom for our humanity. So then you might ask – what is to awaken and what is wisdom? I'd say it is the capacity to accept one's uniqueness and presence as a gift to uplift ourselves and the world. Now, I'm curious – what would you add to this? And here, I must pause, to extend my gratitude to my father, Surendra Kumar Talwar – he was a poet at heart. I am certain I inherited the poetry gene from him. I think he is watching me write this and it makes him happy.

NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be the goal of a poet to enlighten the readers towards a much greater apprehension of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul? Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?

AMBIKA TALWAR:  Yes. I think it is inherent in the works of poets to influence thought and perception – to stir readers and to soothe their longing. The two are connected. Poets compose partly so readers are stirred to see deeper into their own lives and break out of chains that bind them. I think this is true for me, albeit I don't broadcast why I compose. Yes, my writing soothes my soul too; it also excites my inner being and transports me to a state of wonder. This is alchemy. So, yes, of course, literature does stir people awake and inspire them to be whole and break out of bondage of self-imposed chains. It can also incite violence and goad people into wrong ways. We have thousands of years of literary accomplishments emerging from older works, epics and philosophical compilations that speak of the divinity within and relationship between man and nature. Sadly, an overdose of technology and use of apps may weaken man's innate power of expression. Something goes missing for me. I feel strongly that our power of imagination is our creative force; hence. something organic and soulful has to be felt, known, expressed. I say read poetry out loud – there is breath and sound and inner voice speaking to the world. Rhythms of change are within us. Let us create with love and intelligence.

NILAVRONILL: How would you evaluate your contemporaries and what are your aspirations for or expectation from the younger generation?

AMBIKA TALWAR: Our contemporaries are in the many thousands – what an amazing medley of voices. I wish them supernal success. Here, I am compelled to speak to the younger generation. I wish they find their greater challenge in self-growth; nurture and nourish their creative capacity and vision; live a beautiful life with its ups and downs...and fulfill their magnificent destiny creating new communities of visionary action and relational joys.

NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview. I remain obliged to you for your participation. Thank you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.

AMBIKA TALWAR: Namaste NilavroNill. Thank you for this wondrous opportunity. I truly enjoyed your thoughtful questions, your philosophical bent of mind. It was refreshing for me to look within and share my reflections with your readers and our community. I learned through self-reflection. I feel most blessed by this interaction and experience. Thank you so very much. And my gratitude for allowing me to edit again – I had to. I was not thrilled with the last draft. This is how a life is lived.  Editing a poem or essay is akin to editing one's life. 

 

AMBIKA TALWAR India-born educator-author, healer-artist, AMBIKA TALWAR bridges worlds with ecstatic poetry. Bharat Awards for Literature awardee and Pushcart nominee, Ambika won Rabindranath Tagore Int'l (twice) and Great India Poetry contests; she's published in Grateful Conversations, Crystal Fire, KyotoJournal, Roseate-Anthology, Glo-Mag, and various anthologies print/online. Her poetic-spiritual travelog titled, My Greece: Mirrors & Metamorphoses is also recently republished. Her short film won the Best Original Story Award in Belgium (2000). Board member of CSPS-California State Poetry Society, she lives in USA/Bharat.

AMBIKA TALWAR

 

 

Sublimations –

Observing Our Various Unities

 

1. 

Is our evolution a movement from

one technology to another? Do we recreate

the same forms in narratives we think are new?

 

2.

Flirtation with immortality reveals gods

dying to be rebirthed – the rising and falling

the swell of civilization's hopes and dramas.

 

It’s all the same, Beji, my great-grandmother

used to say, nodding wisely, her head covered

with a white shawl, mole peering on her nose.

She would always smile, even when serious.

 

Encircled by Time, we share skies, stories, simulations.

We stub our toes, take pictures, wonder at wisdom

of stillness like of rocks, pristine story tellers.

 

When wind caresses rock, nature's songs arise

fire crackling, water flowing, steam rising

flutter of a thousand birds lifting into the azure.

 

3.      

Do we dance fearlessly to a different name?

Does a new name free us? 

Is knowing oneself an unknowing?

Is liberation illumination? Look me in my eyes.

 

I walk in and out of doors meeting my buried

selves like parts of Greece crumbling. We each is

a crumb, a pebble awaiting a new rainfall.

 

4.

Suffering is noble, some say. It strengthens us.

Don't we ignite cords of joyful wisdom when

we reveal our innermost self?

 

To realize our creative inner-power, we experience

dissolution – long for the precious to be borned.

 

Liquid fire kissing air becomes earth and song.

May we be guardians of all this!

 

Ancients envisioned we’d all savor moments

that arise in us as love, sweetness of fresh breath.

 

To breathe life into every heart, to live in simplicity,

so lessons of suffering we transmute into joy. 

 

5.

Joy can never be in excess – it shines Soul's

golden mean for a life of virtue – an aesthetic.

 

Buddha's midde path, Jewish Adonai hails immanence,

Christ calls for simple living, Allah for inner light.

Sanatan Dharma, eternal law, is unity and cosmic bliss,

mid-line of dance whirling as does Gaia.

 

Breath of my breath – single syllable – Silence

May our Self be subsumed in Beauty, Truth, Courage.

Harmony – Apollonian blues, sonata, raaga, river melodies.

Pleasures of an aesthetic life – subversive, supernal.

 

O Muses! Become in us so we recognize the new

continually in this dance of recovery and recreation.

Come to me, I implore – I see with your eyes,

 

I wear your jewels in my ear lobes –

You and I and Time roll in and out of civilization's

rapacious ways – ready for a new awakening.

  

Let us follow Artemis, the Vedic Aranyani

through forests we must now embrace.

 

6.

But Wait! I confess I have burned in summer's

fiery pot, cooled in blue roving waters of many

world seas, breathed life from pure air –

listened to song of winds over fertile lands drying.

walked in wet mud fragrant with new life.

 

In the in-between spaces, I have held hands

with words, whose sounds have taken me

to a foraging of Ur tongues.  How much I love trees.

 

They have blessed us before we were ever born –

you and I.  I hear their hum in your heart and mine.

 

Something new is stirring. Listen.

How delicate are drops of fresh rain.

Can anything be the same ever again?

 

7.

My Bharat-India stirs forever in me syllables that

stir nadis into purification – we each is a cosmic being!

 

Parashakti – May all our lands awaken in longing:

flutes, cellos, black soil, prayers of solace, drums.

Many antiquities in my bones call wildly, tenderly

to remember elements and sentiments that

make us whole – such are gifts for the renewing.

 

I dreamed Greece would free me. But only I can.

My Soul suffuses my desire for new paths.

In sacred imagination, I arrive where home is.

 

AMBIKA TALWAR

 

AMBIKA TALWAR India-born educator-author, healer-artist, she bridges worlds with ecstatic poetry and short stories. As a Bharat Awards for Literature awardee, she is published in World Wide Writer's Web. As a poet, Ambika is winner of Rabindranath Tagore Int'l, Great India Poetry contest, and a Pushcart nominee; she's published in Grateful Conversations, Crystal Fire, Beyond-Words, Kyoto Journal, On Divine Names, Roseate-Anthology, Glo-Mag, Enchanting Verses and various other anthologies print/online. She made a short film for which she won the Best Original Story Award at a festival in Belgium in 2000. Current California Quarterly/California State Poetry Society board member, she lives in USA/Bharat.

 

AMANITA SEN

 

 

At The Airport Terminal

 

The mustard yellow of her dupatta

matches with my kurti-colour,

as we stand side by side, like our

golden deserts merge on either side

of the boundary that part us.

 

Our skin-colours match, so do

our expressions- a little lost, flustered

at the shared fate of delayed flights;

hers to Lahore, mine to Kolkata- writ large

on our faces the uncertainties of the day.

 

But we smile-a big one, joke about

our same clothes, same skin, same delayed

flight-time. Not writ large for this while

on our faces-the stories of shared betrayals,

the hush of the missile-laden shared borders.

 

Labelled

 

He sang with a full-throated ease.

This boy of ten- who couldn’t

fit into society’s leash.

His voice never quivered,

but not his will-that took

the critics’ blows as though

they were truths, his fate, deserved.

But when he sang, the musical notes

revealed his heart-the purest.

 

He laughed the loudest in his class.

This boy- who couldn’t keep up

with the pace of his peers, and wrote

papers he couldn’t pass.

But he laughed a belly-laugh as if

he hadn’t a care and the world was fair

like a perfectly written verse.

This boy-with talent unsurpassed,

labelled by the ableists: “neurodiverse”.

 

AMANITA SEN

 

AMANITA SEN is the author of 3 books of poetry. She is a mental health professional, living in Kolkata.

 

AMPAT VARGHESE KOSHY

 

 

Unity In Diversity 1

 

The first three left you behind

Hundredfold

The next

Three

You left behind

Hundredfold

It cancels each other out

One plus one is one

Right? Right.

Two left

Two remained

Hundredfold

Now something remained

A well growing deeper

Full of water

Fresh and clear

Left lands behind

Hundredfold

Left home behind

Hundredfold

Persecutions. Got.

Eternal Life. Received.

Hundredfold

The first became last

But something remains

Of clay

Wood

Silver

Thirtyfold

 

Unity In Diversity 2

 

Samson is waiting

His hair growing back

Blind but his arms wrapped stretched out

Around the pillars

Crucified

Waiting

To pull them down

And bring in the light

Will the last become first again?

 

The birds come and go

Sit on the branches

Some shit on the branches

Shelter in its branches

In its cool and shade

The river runs, unendingly, nearby

The tree grows

Its roots deepen

Waiting for

The smell of mustard to fill

The air

To bear the fruit

That lasts

In its season

Every season

Eternal

Infinite.

 

 

DR KOSHY AV is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English in Mount Carmel College Autonomous, Bangalore. He has 39 books with his name on the cover.

ANIL KUMAR PANDA

 

 

The Blessed Land

 

Here in this holy land

Of people of different castes, creeds

Of different languages, religions

Faiths and fruits of different seeds

 

The sun pours its sacred shine

And clouds spill rain so pure and cool

We are different flowers bloom

Fearlessly in country’s simmering pool

 

The lofty peaks shine in dawn

Tearing through the morning airs

From temples, mosques, and churches

Flow with divine graces sublime prayers

 

It is the garden of blessings with

Birds of different colours and births

Live, play, fight and chirp freely and

Make it look like the heaven in the earth

 

Unity

 

From North to South

From East to West

Under glowing sun and placid moon

Bearing their different identities

With pride they dance and swoon

 

From high peaks of Himalayas

To the vast ocean lying below

Different languages, religions and

Cultures bloom and flourish making

The Indian civilization a grand show

 

Plunderers and marauders

Invaded and tried hard to destroy

The fabric of harmonious existence so

Tightly woven and they turned in to dusts

Being unsuccessful in their heinous ploy

 

ANIL KUMAR PANDA

 

ASHOK BHARGAVA

 

 

Walk With Many Winds

 

I wake not just from sleep

but from the hush of unknowing.

This body moves

through a world we share—

yet each of us walks it differently.

 

The rain touches every skin.

The sun offers light without choosing.

But strength is not in sameness—

it’s in how we carry difference.

 

Some shelter in silence.

Some sing in the storm.

None of us owns the sky,

but we shape its meaning

with the eyes we bring to it.

 

The Pattern We Belong To

 

My life sketches every moment

in colours not mine alone…

 

Each dawn, I align

myself with spirit, so

difference doesn’t divide, but deepens.

 

I reach across

to unfamiliar hands,

so no soul fades

beyond our shared light.

 

I learn from every silence —

from voices unlike mine —

how roots differ, but still rise,

how truth may ripen

on many branches.

 

I listen to your quiet

until it merges into mine…

and I know… no more

unheard parts

in this shared becoming.

 

Only a quiet rhythm

echoing across many hearts.

 

I step inside

the mosaic of lived truths

to complete the unseen pattern

that reveals our whole story,

forward and back,

with not a single piece missing.

 

ASHOK BHARGAVA

 

ASHOK BHARGAVA is a poet, writer, committed community activist, public speaker and a keen photographer. Based in Vancouver, he continues to combine in his life, all of the above yet it is apparent that his main passion is poetry. Ashok writes both in English and Hindi, and has published several selections of his poems: Riding the Tide, Mirror of Dreams, A Kernel of Truth, Skipping Stones and Lost in the Morning Calm, among others. His poetry has been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. He has been featured at the Word on the Street, the Asian Heritage Month and International Story Tellers Festivals. Ashok has written for The Canada Times Magazine and the East West News, Asian Journal, The Link, Indo-Canadian Voice and many other newspapers.

 

BANDANA SAHOO

 

 

Rainbow

 

Its glory is adorned

with the seven colors of the rainbow,

Its offerings are adorned

with different colors,

To the mother earth,

Clouds in the cloudy sky

With a touch of some water

He embraces unity.

 

Got soaked in the rain

The Sun makes him jealous,

Pours its own color into my hands

How many colors are there, red and blue?

 

Differences in the hands

Wear that Unity Pat saree

OH!!

How sweet is its appearance!

Like the creation.

 

New Moon

 

Even on a new moon night,

he could write many poems

In the unity of the stars

Can you arrange the words?

 

Even words can understand the power of unity

We can organize ourselves through unity,

In the midst of poetry.

 

Evening is coming.

Birds can sing the voice of unity,

The night can create chaos

In the dreams of sleep.

 

He sees unity in diversity

All over the body

Sometimes in clear blue

And sometimes in unbroken chaos.

 

I sprinkle the silent sandalwood

How many unnecessary questions are there?

All answers are in the list.

 

BANDANA SAHOO

 

BANDANA SAHOO is an international writer and her pen name is "Shibangi Dhara". She belongs to Odisha from India. She keeps the name "Shibangi Dhara" in her signature of her every letter she writes and she writes professionally both in Odia, English and Hindi languages. Apart from poetry, she also like to write both Fiction, Article, Quotes, Columns and Novels etc. Because each one has different specialties, from which we get to learn a lot and on the basis of which we can write a lot. Through her writings she always tries to touch every aspect of the society. Because she believes that every single thing in the society is connected to our life and from there, we definitely get to learn something, and she always believes in learning.

BHARATI NAYAK

 

 

Humanity

 

Seven colours of rainbow

Make one colour, white

Many trees together

Make one forest

Millions of molecules

Join to make one cloud

All countries and all continents

Make one world

All people of all countries

Make one humanity.

 

Oh Children!

You are like many colour flowers

Blooming in a garden

Your laughter is

Sweet song of birds

Your Smile is

Fragrance spreading in the breeze

Your heart is

As pure as colour white

You represent

Energy and liveliness of a forest

You are like drops of water

Making the ocean of humanity

Oh Dears!

The fate of the beautiful earth

Lies in your hands

Please, keep it

In your hearts' care.

@Bharati Nayak

 

Poetry Fraternity

 

Poets have souls

that have empathy, kindness and compassion

No matter from which part of the world they have come

They are like close friends and brothers

They are bound by a common goal

Love for poetry bind them all

They have a vision to make the world a better place

They are united to fight against inequality, injustice, war and violence

May they have come from different walks of life

May they be rich or poor, may they belong to different religions

No caste or creed define them as they have only poets’ soul

Love for humanity is the common thread

that characterise all poets

They see beauty even in tiniest creatures

Their vision defines world’s culture

When earth is divided by borders

Poets visualise one world were

 in spite of vast differences

There will be love, humanity and peaceful co-existence

Poets’ pen sings only an anthem of unity

among a thousand diversities.

@ Bharati Nayak

 

BHARATI NAYAK

 

BHARATI NAYAK is a bilingual poet, writer, critic, editor and translator who writes in English and Odia. Born in the year 1962, she is a post graduate from Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar. Her poems have appeared in nearly two hundred books, e-books, magazines and e-zines of national and international repute such as ‘Setu’, ’Amaravati Poetic Prism’, ’Tranquill Muse’, ‘Kabita Live’, ‘Creation and Criticism’, ‘Circular  Whispers’, ’Poesis-Nova Literature’, ’Glomag’, ’OPA Anthology’, ‘Pangolin Review’, ‘Cuckoo In Crisis’,’ Contemporary Women Poets from India’,’ Odisha Review’, ’Glomag ‘and the like. She has so far published ten books as sole author and co-author, namely ‘A Day for Myself’, ‘Words Are Such Perfect Traitors’, ‘Poetry and Friendship’, ’In the Realms of Love and Divinity’ and ‘Radical Rhythm’(in four volumes). She has been felicitated by some literary forums on Facebook for her active interaction and participation in the literary field.

GARGI SARKHEL BAGCHI

 

 

A Thousand Colours, One Light

 

The Ganges hums to meditative hills,

Kerala’s backwaters mirror ancient wills;

From Rajasthan’s sands of molten gold,

To Himalayan peaks where legends unfold.

 

The monsoon stirs with fragrant grace,

While mango and marigold interlace;

This land a prayer the heart gently keeps –

a vision that wakes while the cosmos sleeps.

 

Diwali lamps, like fireflies, gleam,

Holi paints hues in every dream;

Eid’s crescent smiles, and Christmas bells

ring through the dusk where wonder dwells.

 

A hundred tongues, a million songs,

Yet each to the same deep core belongs;

Bhakti hymns and the dhol’s fierce call,

Echo oneness, embracing all.

 

From Kathak’s poise to Garba’s spin,

Every pulse holds the world within;

And in each gaze, each hand, each sigh,

Beats one breath beneath the sky.

 

Behold the lotus, divinely spun,

each petal different, yet wholly one;

Flaunting India’s spirit, serene and free,

and the timeless creed: Unity in diversity.

© Gargi Sarkhel Bagchi

 

One Flame

 

We are born of one dust of sunlit glades,

yet varied landscapes adorn us in diverse shades.

In Kutch, the salt plains shimmer white,

in Assam, the tea-leaves murmur green delight.

The same rain hums two lilting ragas:

one in Ganga’s song, one in Godavari’s sagas.

 

Our prayers ascend like kites in flight,

each tugging at the selfsame light.

some in voices old and new,

some in songs heartfelt and true,

some in silence – hands entwined,

wordless hymns of humankind.

 

The tabla speaks, the veena replies,

a shehnai laughs, the flute sighs;

their notes, like birds in dusky air,

cross borders none can hold or spare.

The farmer’s foot and dancer’s heel,

the weaver’s thread, the poet’s quill

all blend and beat the nation’s will.

 

O land of ours, resplendent, whole,

you wear each colour, yet one soul.

What is India but a garland fair

of hearts twined in love and prayer?

And when night folds the fields in flame,

the stars of Kashi and Kochi proclaim:

though many fires in darkness gleam,

we are, forever, one golden dream.

© 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’, ‘R.P. Sharma’s Poetic Present for Poetry Rendition 2023’, ‘National Chanting Bards Award, 2023 & 2025’, ‘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 the ‘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”.