Excellent poetry by Gopal Lahiri

Bio:

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer, and translator with 31 published books, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose have been published globally in more than one hundred journals and anthologies. His poems have been translated into 18 languages and published in 16 countries. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021. He received the Setu Excellence Award in Pittsburgh, US, for poetry in 2020. He Indian English Writing. His collection of poems, ‘Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets,’ has received Pan Asian Ukiyoto awards. First Prize Winner in Poetry Contest organised by 43^rd World Congress of Poets in 2024. Recent Credits: One Art Journal, Poetry Breakfast, Verse-Virtual Journal, Setu Journal, Kitaab Journal, Himalayan Diary, Dissident Voice, The Piker Press, Confluence, The Wise Owl Journal, MasticadoresUSA ezine, Literary Yard, Amethyst Review, Shot Glass Journal, and elsewhere.

Expanse

I sleep in a silence that whirrs and hums
but a thunderstorm is going to burst open soon.

Night opening to night- swells with higher notes
drawing me back to the misty verandah.

Your eyes are two blue moons, quiet and unsealed
your voice is losing the verve in time and distance.

Watching the plane lights swipe past the windows
and grey clouds fill up with timeworn memories.

The strong winds lift unheard voices from the star line,
you love to inhabit that recital, that litany!

I look up at the cloudy sky in search of the doorway
between our nights, our washed out old promises,

Whisper is always a secret language,
a hint that you always understand,

I whisper your name round and round in vain.

That window never stands for
personal epiphanies.

That window is more of yellow rose
than the red hibiscus

That window brings amber light
in every evening.

That window always waits for
a certain something.

That window records crows shout and
all the unpacked lies.

That window easily understand the
black coughs of the beggars.

That window can not yet recognize husky
calls from the pavement.

Reminders:

With a cover designed by our of award-winning Japanese artist Hikari, and with artistic photos by award-winning Japanese photographer Naoki Kimura included, please do not miss the chance to have your words grace the pages of our upcoming book, Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku. Email five haiku(s) at literaryrevelations@pm.me and label your submission 5 Haiku.

Submission closes February 28.

We are now open for art submission.