Gopal Lahiri – Cajun Mutt Press

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 02/19/24

February 19, 2024 James D. Casey IV

Blaze

I will not retrace the artefacts
there will be no more questions, no
more serving you at sundown
all will be eaten, or will
burn down,
it is of no importance
how you blaze or abandon.

There will be no late syllable from me.
from the last milling, the round box
of singular moon rises,
hearth for all others, you
continue to run for me,
and I hear your old metallic songs
and because of them I feel rounded.

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 29 books published, including eight jointly edited books. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. His poems are translated in 16 languages. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021. He is the recipient of the Poet of the Year Award in Destiny Poets, UK, 2016, Setu Excellence Award, 2020, Pittsburgh, US and Indology Life-Time Achievement award, West Bengal, India. His latest collection of poems Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets. has received wide acclaim.

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 03/22/23

March 22, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Eerie Quiet

The whispers stop short, held, and left hanging.
all those street lights are off,
have you opened the door?
The night is dense and dark,
the answer this time will not be a shout.

Inside, the narrow living room
brick walls hung with abstracts paintings
and light bulbs hooded
by vaguely laboratorial shades.
human skeletons on wooden spikes gather
darkness in the underground dungeon.

Coffee is still sparkling hot, the sugar crystals whitish,
at the far corner of the table, the ashplant fades in,
dish towels and napkins bleed red
the soft palm you caress and grasp, that I can’t feel,
it’s only a cut near the throat, are you really there?

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 29 books published, including eight jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across various anthologies globally. His poems are translated in 16 languages. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021, He has received Setu Excellence award in poetry.

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 07/04/22

July 4, 2022 James D. Casey IV

Inner Cage

whatever is written
in the darkness that rests on the drawer
inside the pages of my diary
shadows standing on their own skeletons
grating with their idioms.

a need to dig
to conceal my bones.
without spores or promises,
ready to be wounded
in the silence that presses lips
until they become a death kiss.

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 24 books published, including five jointly edited books. His poetry is also published across various anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad. His poems are translated in 16 languages. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021. He is the recipient of the Poet of the Year Award in Destiny Poets, UK, 2016, Setu Excellence Award, 2020, Pittsburgh, US and Indology Life-Time Achievement award, West Bengal, India. His latest collection of poems ‘Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets.’ has received wide acclaim.