Gopal Lahiri






Morning Splendour

In the faint light the red fruits
Bursting with ripe seeds,

Noisy sparrows feeding at daylight 
A tiny butterfly perches on the wet stone,

Autumn sky spreading, clouds align,
Stroke the air, leaves sailing somewhere,

Rose still blooms in silence under the shade,
Morning sinking in a light drizzle,

There is a lot to notice, gazing across
Meadows speckled golden with buttercups,

The low land is washed by a panoply of greens
A little bird singing its little heart out,

To fill the broad valley with beautiful songs,
You enjoy all this beauty in tranquillity.
@gopallahiri








Tidal Footprint

There is silence, the rising sun spills in through
The tidal pools that housed tiny worlds of crabs,

Everywhere the fanning palms record the voice
of the west wind, seabirds soaring up overhead,

Windward stretch of the beach is showing a collage of
sand grains, footprints and unnamed sea shells,

Lean coconut palms holding up the kites
The winding sandy path leaves an arch,

Now comes the moments one after the another
And the old words rising out of the rust-coloured corals,

A spectrum of wonders, memories lay cemented
A long journey on the shore line now resting on the stone.
@gopallahiri









Snapshots

daybreak
pigeons surge into the roofs
in their hundreds,

the hazy morning
give away
to sunlight-infused noon,

remember
during rainstorms my childhood
chasing pigeons
down the avenues,

down past the branches, the leaves,
the blossoming flowers,

the butterfly sits
on the edges of the window.

inhale the solitude of nature.

for days I was drawn to her stripes
to her colour, to her beauty.

and all this before soaking
in the vermillion of the setting sun.
@gopallahiri



Gopal Lahiri

Gopal Lahiri was born and grew up in Kolkata, India. He is a bilingual poet, writer, editor, critic and translator and published in Bengali and English language. He has authored seven volumes of poetry in Bengali and nine volumes in English and jointly edited one anthology of poems in English and published one translation work. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. He is the recipient of the Poet of the Year Award in Destiny Poets, UK, 2016. He can be reached at glahiri@gmail.com