March 2023
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Michael R Burch, Kirpal Singh, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Amit Parmessur, Carl Scharwath, Isha Sharma, Gale Acuff, Anannya Dasgupta, Vaishnavi Saritha, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Pragya Bajpai, George Freek, Sanket Mhatre, Ron Pickett, Asad Latif, Rhys Hughes
Kurigram by Masud Khan has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam from Bangla. Click here to read.
Bonfire by Ihlwha Choi has been translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Borondala (Basket of Offerings) has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
February, 2023
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Rhys Hughes, Chad Norman, Amit Parmessur, Sister Lou Ella Hickman, Anjali V Raj, Alex Z Salinas, Swati Mazta, Pragya Bajpai, John Grey, Saranyan BV, Dee Allen, Sanjukta Dasgupta, David Francis, Mitra Samal,George Freek, Vineetha Mekkoth, Ron Pickett, Ryan Quinn Flangan, Asad Latif
Atta Shad’s Today’s Child has been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Masud Khan’s History has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Ihlwha Choi translates his own poem, Lunch Time,from Korean. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Somudro or Ocean has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
January, 2023
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Jared Carter, Ranu Uniyal, Rhys Hughes, Ananya Sarkar, Saranyan BV, Scott Thomas Outlar, Priyanka Panwar, Ron Pickett, Ananya Sarkar, K.S. Subramaniam, George Freek, Snigdha Agrawal, Jenny Middleton, Asad Latif, Michael R Burch
Nazrul’s Ring Bells of Victory has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
The Bike Thief by Ihlwha Choi has been translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Banshi or Flute has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty from Bengali.Click here to read.
December, 2022
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Jared Carter, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Rhys Hughes, Asad Latif, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Santosh Bakaya, Phil Wood, Sharanya B, George Freek, Saibal Chatterjee, Jonathan Chan, Sutputra Radheye, Shambhu Nath Banerjee, Michael Burch
Nazrul’s Why Provide Thorns has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Confessions, a poem written by and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
The Sun on the First Day, a translation of Tagore’s Prothom Diner Aalo by Mitali Chakravarty. Click hereto read.
November, 2022
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Jared Carter, Asad Latif, Rhys Hughes, Alpana, Mimi Bordeaux, Saranyan BV, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Quratulain Qureshi, Jim Bellamy, Sourav Sengupta, Ron Pickett, Davis Varghese, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Jonathan Chan, Terry Trowbridge, Amrita Sharma, George Freek, Gayatri Majumdar, Michael R Burch
Rows of Betel Vines by My Window by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Saturday Afternoon is a poem by Ihlwha Choi, translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.
Tagore’s poem, Tomar Shonkho Dhulay Porey (your conch lies in the dust), has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty as The Conch Calls. Click here to read.
October 2022
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Michael R Burch, Kirpal Singh, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Jonathan Chan, Ron Pickett, Saranyan BV, George Freek, Pramod Rastogi, Mike Smith, Gayatri Majumdar, John Grey, Vandana Kumar, Ahmad Al-Khatat, Rhys Hughes
Daridro or Poverty by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Two poems from Italy by Rosy Gallace have been translated from Italian by Irma Kurti. Click here to read.
Flowers of Love Bloom Everywhere, a poem for peace, written by and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Aalo Amar Aalo (Light, My Light) a song by Tagore, has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty from Bengali. Click here to read.
September 2022,
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Michael R Burch, Sunil Sharma, George Freek, Sutputra Radheye, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Arshi Mortuza, Ron Pickett, Prasant Kumar B K, David Francis, Shivani Srivastav, Marianne Tefft, Saranyan BV, Jim Bellamy, Shareefa BeegamPP, Irma Kurti,Gayatri Majumdar, Rhys Hughes
Jajangmyeon Love, a poem has been written in Korean and translated by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Eshechhe Sarat by Tagore has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
A Balochi Folksong that is rather flirtatious has been translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Professor Fakrul Alam has translated three Tagore songs around autumn from Bengali. Click here to read.
August, 2022
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Rhys Hughes, Ratnottama Sengupta, Mike Smith, Rituparna Mukherjee, Tony Brewer, Ahmed Rayees,Ron Pickett, Ramesh Dohan, Sister Lou Ella Hickman, Sambhu Nath Banerjee, Candice Louisa Daquin,Oindri Sengupta, Gigi Baldovino Gosnell, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Tanvi Jeph, George Freek, Michael R Burch
Arise, Arise O Patriot! and Helmsman Attention! by Kazi Nazrul Islam have been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Song of Hope or ‘Hobe Joye‘ has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Clickhere to read.
July, 2022
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Michael R Burch, Supatra Sen, Jenny Middleton, Pramod Rastogi, Ron Pickett, George Freek, Devangshu Dutta, Candice Louisa Daquin, David Francis, Raja Chakraborty, Michael Lee Johnson, Ashok Suri, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Sutputra Radheye, Maid Corbic, Rhys Hughes
Tagore’s Mono Mor Megher Shongi has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Cry of the Sunflower written in Korean and translated to English by Ihlwha Choi, a poem for Ukraine. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Nobobarsha (or ‘New Showers’) has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
June, 2022
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Jared Carter, Sutputra Radheye, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Antara Mukherjee, David Francis, Alpana, George Freek, Prashanti Chunduri, John Grey, Ashok Suri, Heather Sager, G Venkatesh, Candice Louisa Daquin, Elizabeth Ip, Rhys Hughes, Michael R Burch
Three Shorter Poems of Jibananda Das have been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Pie in the Sky is a poem written and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Taal Gaachh or The Palmyra Tree, a lilting light poem by Tagore, has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
May, 2022
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Michael R Burch, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, Ron Pickett, Abin Chakraborty, Tohm Bakelas, Mini Babu, Sudakshina Kashyap, George Freek, Shailaja Sharma, Allison Grayhurst, Amritendu Ghosal, Marianne Tefft, S Srinivas, Rhys Hughes
Jibananda Das’s All Afternoon Long, translated from Bengali by Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
The Colour of Time, Korean poetry composed and translated by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Tagores’ Lukochuri has been translated from Bengali as Hide and Seek by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
April, 2022
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Michael R Burch, Mini Babu, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozabal, Anjali V Raj, George Freek, Ashok Suri, Ron Pickett, Sutputra Radheye, Dr Kisholoy Roy, David Francis, J.D. Koikoibo, Sybil Pretious, Apphia Ruth D’souza, Rhys Hughes
Refugee in my Own Country/ I am Ukraine… Poetry by Lesya Bukan of Ukraine. Click here to read.
Ananto Prem (Endless Love) by Tagore, translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Leafless Trees, poetry and translation from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Ebar Phirao More (Take me Back) by Tagore, translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Nature’s Musings
In Studies in Blue and White, Penny Wilkes gives us a feast of bird and ocean photography along with poetry. Click here to read and savour the photographs.
March 2022
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Kirpal Singh, Rhys Hughes, Sutputra Radheye, Jay Nicholls, Uma Gowrishankar, Mike Smith, Anasuya Bhar, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Supatra Sen,George Freek, Pramod Rastogi, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Ananta Kumar Singh, Michael R Burch,Shaza Khan
Jibananda Das’s Where have all these Birds Gone & On the Pathways for Long…translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Munir Momin’s You & I translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Autumn is Long, a poem written in Korean and translated to English by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Anondodhara Bohichche Bhubone (The Universe reverberates with celestial ecstasy)…translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
February, 2022
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Rhys Hughes, A Jessie Michael, Jay Nicholls, Moonmoon Chowdhury, Mike Smith, David Francis, Anaya Sarkar, Matthew James Friday, Ashok Suri, John Grey, Saptarshi Bhattacharya, Candice Louisa Daquin, Emalisa Rose, Ryan Quinn Flanagan
Nature’s Musings
Penny Wilkes explores dewdrops and sunrise in A Dewdrop World. Click here to read.
One Day in the Fog, written by Jibananda Das and translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Mahnu, a poem by Atta Shad, translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
A Superpower in the Pandemic, written and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Raatri Eshe Jethay Meshe by Tagore has been translated from Bengali as Where the Night comes to Mingle by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
January, 2022
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Rhys Hughes, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Anasuya Bhar,Jay Nicholls, Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, Vernon Daim, Mathangi Sunderrajan, William Miller, Syam Sudhakar, Mike Smith, Pramod Rastogi, Ivan Peledov, Subzar Ahmed, Michael R Burch
Professor Fakrul Alam translates If Life were Eternalby Jibananada Das from Bengali. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta translates Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bijoya Doushami. Click here to read.
Korean poet Ihlwha Choi translates his own poem,Sometimes Losing is Winning, from Korean. Click here to read.
On This Auspicious Day is a translation of a Tagore’ssong, Aaji Shubhodine Pitaar Bhabone, from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
December, 2021
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Michael R Burch, Dibyajyoti Sarma, Anasuya Bhar, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Sambhu Nath Banerjee,Michael Brockley, Malachi Edwin Vethamani, George Freek, Mitra Samal, William Miller, Harsimran Kaur, Jay Nicholls, Sangeeta Sharma, Rhys Hughes
Translated from Bengali by Fakrul Alam, two poem by the late Jibananda Das. Click here to read.
Shorter Poems of Akbar Barakzai
Translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch, five shorter poems by Akbar Barakzai. Click here to read.
Written and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Rangiye Diye Jao, a song by Tagore, transcreated by Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.
Robert Burns & Tagore in Harmony
A transcreation of Tagore’s song, Purano Sei Diner Kotha, based on Robert Burn’s poem associated with new year’s revelries by Mitali Chakravarty. Click hereto read.
November, 2021
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Rhys Hughes, Sutputra Radheye, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Sheshu Babu, Michael Lee Johnson, Prithvijeet Sinha, George Freek, Sujash Purna, Ashok Manikoth, Jay Nicholls, Pramod Rastogi, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Vijayalakshmi Harish, Mike Smith, Neetu Ralhan, Michael R Burch
Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes
A story poem about The Clock Tower of Sir Ticktock Bongg. Click here to read.
Nature’s Musings
Penny Wilkes takes us for a stroll into the avian lives with photographs and poetry in Of Moonshine & Birds. Click here to read.
Nazrul’s signature poem, ‘Bidrohi‘, translated by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Jibonananda Das‘s poetry translated from Bengali by Rakibul Hasan Khan. Click here to read.
Poetry of Munir Momin, translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
A poem in Korean, written & translated by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Tagore’s poetry translated by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
October, 2021
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Michael R Burch, A Jessie Michael, John Grey, Rupali Gupta Mukherjee, Mike Smith, Saranyan BV, Tony Brewer, Baisali Chatterjee Dutt, Jay Nicholls, Beni S Yanthan, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Pramod Rastogi, Jason Ryberg, Michael Lee Johnson, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, Rhys Hughes
Animal Limericks by Michael R Burch. Click here to read.
Nazrul’s Kon Kule Aaj Bhirlo Tori translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
Akbar Barakzai’s poetry in Balochi, translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
A poem reflecting the state of Gandhi’s ideology written in Manipuri by Thangjam Ibopishak and translated from the Manipuri by Robin S Ngangom. Click here to read.
A poem in Korean, written & translated by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Written by Tagore in 1908, Amaar Nayano Bhulano Ele describes early autumn when the festival of Durga Puja is celebrated. It has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
September, 2021
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Arundhathi Subramaniam, Michael R Burch, Sekhar Banerjee, Jeff Shakes, Ashok Suri, Tim Heerdink, Srinivas S, Rhys Hughes, A Jessie Michael, George Freek, Saranayan BV, Gigi Baldovino Gosnell, Pramod Rastogi, Tohm Bakelas, Nikita Desai, Jay Nicholls, Smitha Vishwanathan, Jared Carter
Nature’s Musings
In Sun, Seas and Flowers, Penny Wilkes takes us for a tour of brilliant photographs of autumnal landscapes with verses. Click here to read.
Balochi poetry by Akbar Barakzai, translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
A poem by Jitendra Vasava translated from the Dehwali Bhili via Gujarati by Gopika Jadeja. Clickhere to read.
Poetry by Sokhen Tudu, translated from the Santhali by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. Click here to read.
Korean poetry on time written and translated by Ilwha Choi. Click here to read.
A story poem about a Buddhist monk by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali has been translated by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
August, 2021
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Jaydeep Sarangi, Joan McNerney, Vandana Sharma, Michael Lee Johnson, Priyanka Parwar, Mihaela Melnic, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Kirpal Singh, Sutputra Radheye, John Linwood Grant, JulianMathews, Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Rhys Hughes, Rachel Jayan, Jay Nicholls, Jared Carter
Nature’s Musings
Becoming Marco Polo: Poetry and photography by Penny Wilkes.
Akbar Barakzai’s Songs of Freedom
Akbar Barakzai’s poetry translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Mother’s Birthday Dinner Table
Ihlwha Choi translates his own poem set in Santiniketan from Korean to English. Click here to read.
July, 2021
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Suzanne Kamata, Lorraine Caputo, Rhys Hughes, Kinjal Sethia, Emalisa Rose, Shahriyer Hossain Shetu, John Herlihy, Reena R, Mitra Samal, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Shubham Raj, George Freek, Marc Nair, Michael R Burch, Jay Nicholls, Jared Carter
Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes
In The Scottish Homer: William McGonagall, Rhys Hughes assays into the times of this bard known as the best of worst poets! Click here to read.
Nature’s Musings
Penny Wilkes takes us Down the Path of Nostalgia with a mix of old and new photography and prose and poetry on how around the end of the second world war, she started her love affair with photography and nature. Click here to read
Translations
Two songs by Tagore written originally in Brajabuli, a literary language developed essentially for poetry, has been translated by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Balochi poetry of Akbar Barakzai translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Korean Poetry written and translated to English by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Poetry in Bosnian from Bosnia & Herzegovina, written and translated by Maid Corbic. Click here to read.
June, 2021
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Jared Carter, Geetha Ravichandran, Heena Chauhan, Michael R. Burch, Ruchi Acharya, Jim Bellamy, Bibek Adhikari, Rhys Hughes, Ihlwha Choi, Sutputra Radheye, Jay Nicholls, Geethu V Nandakumar, John Grey, Ana Marija Meshkova
Nature’s Musings
Changing Seasons, a photo-poem by Penny Wilkes.
Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes
In Never Knowingly Understood : The Sublime Daftness of Ivor Cutler, Rhys Hughes takes us to the world of a poet who wrote much about our times with a sense of humour. Click here to read.
Translations
Akbar Barakzai’s poem, The Law of Nature, translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poem, Shammobadi (The Equaliser) translated by Shahriyer Hossain Shetu. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Amar Shonar Horin Chai (I want the Golden Deer) translated by Mitali Chakravarty, edited and interpreted in pastel by Sohana Manzoor. Click hereto read.
May, 2021
Anasuya Bhar, Scott Thomas Outlar, Saranyan BV, Matthew James Friday, Nitya Mariam John, RJ Kaimal, Jay Nicholls, Tasneem Hossain, Rhys Hughes, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Ihlwha Choi, Himadri Lahiri, Sunil Sharma, Mike Smith, Jared Carter
Nature’s Musings
Photo-Poetry by Penny & Michael Wilkes. Click here to read.
Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes
As a tribute to the 209th anniversary of Edward Lear, Rhys Hughes writes of his famous poem, ‘Owl and the Pussycat’, and writes a funny ending for it rooted in the modern day. Click here to read.
Translations
Songs of Seasons: Translated by Fakrul Alam
Bangla Academy literary award winning translator, Dr Fakrul Alam, translates seven seasonal songs of Tagore. Click here to read.
Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poem, Purify my Life, translated by Shahriyer Hossain Shetu. Click here to read.
Waiting for Godot by Akbar Barakzai
Akbar Barakzai’s poem translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Aditya Shankar translates a poem by Sujith Kumar. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Diner Sheshe Ghoomer Deshe translated by Mitali Chakravarty with an interpretation in pastels by Sohana Manzoor. Click here to read.
April, 2021
(Click on the names to read)
Arundhathi Subramaniam, Jared Carter, Matthew James Friday, Michael R Burch, Aparna Ajith, Jenny Middleton, Rhys Hughes, Jay Nicholls, Achingliu Kamei, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Ihlwha Choi, Smitha Vishwanath, Sekhar Banerjee, Sumana Roy
Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes
With an introduction to Blood and Water by Rebecca Lowe, Rhys Hughes debuts with his column on poets and poetry. Click here to read.
Translations
Fazal Baloch translates the eminent Balochi poet, Akbar Barakzai. Click here to read.
Malayalam poetry in Translation
Aditya Shankar translates a poem by Shylan from Malayalam to English. Click here to read.
To commemorate Tagore’s birth anniversary, we transcreated five of his songs from Bengali to English. Click here to read, listen and savour.
March, 2021
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Tom Merrill, Sangeeta Sharma, Penny Wilkes, Shraddha Arora, Anthony Wade, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Jared Carter, Vijayalakshmi Harish, Ken Allan Dronsfield, Ihlwha Choi, Michael R. Burch
Story Poem
Rhys Hughes takes us on a brilliant trip with aliens popping out of treasure chests and humour. Click here to read.
Transcreations
Ratnottama Sengupta transcreates three poems from Bengali. Click here to read.
Translations
Poetry by Krishna Bajgai has been translated from Nepalese by Dr. Rupak Shrestha. Click here to read
Aditya Shankar translates Krispin Joseph‘s poetry from Malyalam to English. Click here to read.
World Poetry Day Special, 2021… Click here to read
February, 2021
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Sunil Sharma, Devangshu Dutta, Rhys Hughes, Matthew Friday, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Glen Armstrong, Sutputra Radheye, John Grey, Jared Carter, Michael R Burch, Ashok Suri, Cinna the poet, Achingliu Kamei, Tom Merrill.
A poem by well-known Iranian poet, Bijan Najdi. Translated from Persian by Davood Jalili. Click hereto read.
Established poet, Aditya Shankar, translates poems by Sandhya NP from Malyalam to English. Click here to read.
January, 2021
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Tom Merrill, Gauri Mishra, Soma Debray, Sanket Mhatre, Aditya Shankar, Michael Burch, Maithreyi Karnoor, Sabreen Ahmed, Ihlwha Choi
Humour: Vatslala Radhakeesoon, Rhys Hughes, Tom Merrill
A Request To A Son is a Nepali poem by Swapnil Smriti, translated by Pranika Koyu. Click here to read.
December, 2020
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Michael R Burch, Anita Nahal, Sekhar Banerjee, Megha Sood, Jessie Michael, Y. Deepika, Ashok Suri, Anjali V Raj, Netra Hirani, Md Musharraf, Soma Debray, Jenny Middleton, Ihlwha Choi, Sangeeta Sharma, Sonya J Nair, Tom Merrill, Shakti Pada Mukhopadhyay
Humour
Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Sekhar Banerjee, Rhys Hughes
Translations
Lesya Bukan translates three of her own poems from Ukranian and Russian to English. Click here to read.
A Nepali poem for a nuclear war victim by Manjul Miteri, who is currently helping sculpt a Buddha in Japan, has been translated to English by Hem Bishwakarma. Click here to read
Poetry from Nepal by Nabin Pyassi, translated by Haris C Adhikari. Click here to read.
Poems from Armenia by Eduard Harents translated from Armenian by Harout Vartanian. Click here to read
November, 2020
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John Grey, Nayonika, Scott Thomas Outlar, Pranjulaa Singh, Milan Mondal, Hema Ravi, Dr Piku Chowdhury, Kaikasi V .S., Kashiana Singh, Saranyan BV, Rhys Hughes, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Anita Nahal, Fizza Saeed, Gauri Mishra, Navneet K Maun, Adrian David, Gopal Lahiri, Smitha Vishwanath, Aminath Neena.
Humour
Rhy Hughes, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Penny Wilkes
Translation
Doubt, A poem by award winning and popular poet Avaya Shrestha, translated from Nepali by Haris C Adhikari. Click here to read.
October, 2020
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Dr Piku Chowdhury, Milan Mondal, Navneet K Maun, Dr Laksmisree Banerjee, Soumik De, Wansoo Kim, Shyamolima Saikia, Nabina Das, Ihlwha Choi, Eui Joong Kim, Nirmal Kumar Thapa, Aminath Neena, Ashok Suri, Gopal Lahiri
Humour: Vatsala Radhakeesoon
Book Excerpt
Rhys Hughes introduces us to the delights of doodling poetry in his new book with a name that I would not dare to pronounce, Corybantic Fulgours. Click here to see his creations.
Translations
From the conflict ridden state of Kashmir, Rayees Ahmed writes of hope and restoration of peace. He translates his own poem, Ab tak Toofan or The Storm that Rages, from Urdu to English. Click here to read.
An Entreaty written by Hem Bishwakarma, translated from Nepali by the poet himself. Click here to read
September 2020
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Geetha Ravichandran, adi (Adithya Patil), Sakshi Srivastava, Srijith Raha, Chaitali Sengupta, Amita Ray, Matthew James Friday, Navneet K Maun, Adrian David, Nishi Pulugurtha, A.Jessie Michael, Melissa A. Chappell, Roopam Mishra, Anjali V.Raj, Wansoo Kim, King Komrabai Dumbuya
Humour: Penny Wilkes, Saranayan BV, Sambhu R.
Limericks by Vandana Dharni
Book Excerpt: Notes of Silent Times by Mahesh Paudyal. Click hereto read.
Tagore’s Krishnokoli by translated by Rupa Chakravarti from Bengali to English. Click here to read
Sanket Mhatre‘s poems translated by Rochelle Potkar from Marathi to English. Click here to read.
Bina Theeng Tamang‘s poetry translated by Hem Bishwakaram from Nepali to English. Click here to read.
August, 2020
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Paresh Tiwari, Dr Lakshmisree Banerjee, Mossarap Khan, Ahmad Rayees, Gopal Lahiri, Navneet K Mann, Gracy Samjetsabam, Dr Ajanta Paul, Goto Emmanuel, Prithvijeet Sinha, Shyamsree Maji, Pervin Saket, Andrée Roby, Anuradha Prasad, Kavita Ezekeil Mendoca, Melissa Chappell, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Santosh Bakaya, Palak Tyagi, Rhys Hughes, Aditya Shankar, Sudeshna Mukherjee, Sunil Sharma, Dustin Pickering, Dr Piku Chowdhury, Dr Sutanku Ghoshroy, Saranyan BV
Translation
Three poems translated by RaSh
Excerpt
John Beacham’s poems from his book, On the Pandemic, To the Rising
July 2020, Click on the names to read the poems
Mallika Bhaumik, KSheshu Babu, Sunil Sharma, Moinak Dutta, Ravi, Kiriti Sengupta, Dustin Pickering, Devangshu Dutta, Sekhar Banerjee, Jose Varghese, Sutputra Radheye, Tamoha Siddiqui, Viplob Pratik, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Lidia Chiarelli, Huguette Bertrand, John Grey, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Linda Imbler, Sanjhi Gyanchandani, Sreedevi Anumula, Anasuya Bhar, Christopher Manners, Santosh Bakaya, J George, Aneek Chatterjee, Melissa A Chappell, A Jessie Michael, Zeenat Khan
Chandra Gurrung’s My Father’s Face translated by Mahesh Paudyal
Umesh Bajagain
The virus came
with a blow
smacked me in the face
blew me out slow
(Click here to read more)
Srividya Sivakumar
In Coonoor, childhood tumbles
down a hill to find its way home.
The cobra lily has made a comeback.
(Click here to read more)
Smitha Vishwanath
Seven years she’d waited for him
She’d prayed five times each day
At fajr, zuhr, asr, maghrib and isha
On the nineteenth day of Ramadan
(Click here to read)
Mutiu Olawuyi
I’ve toured the whole protests;
All enjoined but one detest:
You cannot campaign for best
and converge for States – unrest!
(Click here to read)
Parneet Jaggi
Taste of Ashes
In a remote village
amidst silent hills of the Himalayas,
a tale of the ashes lures every passerby.
Smoke lighting up the azure sky
(Click here to read more)
Melissa A Chappell
What do the birds cry
when the sun sinks upon a killing,
and the taken life feeds the hungering, blood-rich soil of a nation,
as it has for centuries.
(Click here to read)
Himadri Lahiri
In the worst of times my specs too have betrayed.
Only the day before yesterday
it fell from my hand, lost its shape and swayed.
Though the lenses remained intact
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Ra Sh
When I die, will you come with me?
I asked my mango tree.
She pondered for a while and replied wisely
When I was a sapling,
(Click here to read)
Scott Thomas Outlar
Mellow is the fog hanging heavy with persuasion
all the doves are cooing near the edge of absolution
but nature doesn’t forgive without a bite
One more dance of light behind the optics of transcendence
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Obinna Chilekezi
as while in school, we’re
warned of dangers of going global
for a big small village, but we thought only
of the passion and money, the beauty and trade
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Sutanuka Ghosh Roy
She is Rumki
No one knows whether she is a Muslim or a Hindu
She mops the floor in a sari shop in the city
Babu tells there are insects in the air
(Click here to read)
By Chandni Santosh
The day we returned from the mulberry tree,
You bought me a pair of gold anklets,
With the thirteenth symphony set inside,
The symphony of sadness.
(Click here to read)
By Madhu Srivastaw
Corona cries all around
Amphan raged destruction
Yet I am me
Living on day to day
(Click here to read)
Ndue Ukaj
The world is sneezing in front of a virus
that has bound the earth and shakes it like a light toy.
People are panting like dogs after a long and aimless journey.
Everyone panting, and behind walls they compose a symphony of fear.
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Bibek Adhikari
Words dribble down from the corners
of your mouth. From within the temple,
gods tremble with your frosty voice—
they now need a glass of moonshine.
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Karunakaran (Translated by Aditya Shankar)
No Warplane Has Ever Flown Like A Bird
No warplane
has ever flown like a bird,
has lost way like a bird,
has halted mid-flight reminiscing a bygone aroma.
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By Dr Rumpa Das
Nowadays,
I don’t go anywhere near where you live –
Spring is elsewhere.
The flowers in your garden have wilted…
(Click here to read)
Amrita Sharma
Love in the times of quarantine
Prologue
Your confessions never mattered,
Your agreement was never my call,
Your choices never governed mine,
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Stefan Markovski
Following the white griffin’s trail
In a body of demigod beast imperial shadows of chthonic forces douse
kingdoms united into the singularity of all beings
become golden ruins under steel-feathered wings
in an incense smoke sighs are clothed through which gods send answers
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Amrita Saikia
I sat listening to the tap tapping of the raindrops,
And the blissful sound of the wild mountain stream,
I smelled the pure and pristine air of the valley,
Laden with the sweet scent of orchids…
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Jee Leong Koh
Unctuously fried oyster omelet.
Hainanese chicken rice. Sambal fish balls
pierced on a stick, as in the old night markets,
airborne kerosene lamps lisping with a flair.
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Gopal Lahiri
Sometimes there is a night you just want
to get so far away from,
fire burns out in life’s long years,
memories are plucked, timid words wipe the window
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Vandana Kumar
It felt like another eon
This surely wasn’t our century
Plagued by something
As evil as the bubonic
(Click here to read)
Sarra Colleno
Year 2 file into the assembly hall,
For parents, arrange the order they stand.
In dreidel graphics, white and blue. Or all
Gold jewellery, bindis and henna hands.
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Kashiana Singh
Three dimensions, home and more
Sailboats at sea
Neglected rains
Dehydrate my bones
Outlandish refrains…
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Sushant Kumar BK
You know? I was a single mother,
Hear my story of pain.
I struggled to raise my children,
Putting my own hunger in shade…
(Click here to read)
Sarita Jenamani
When our nocturnal solitude
makes us mourn the moment given
we should think of the images
of those handwritten notes…
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Anjana Basu
Like a circle in a spiral
like a wheel within a half heard song
from a womb
my father talking strategy to my yawning mother
(Click here to read more)
Michael Bailey
When silence finds its way between the soft
When silence finds its way between the soft
seconds of a hushed reminder,
the unquiet dark will soon fill…
(Click here to read)
Biju Kanhangad
(Translated by Aditya Shankar)
Beneath the blue waterline,
father’s catch basks in the sunlight: a fish.
The gray-black of crows shroud the pale oar.
Reddish crabs reach the shore, transcending
the festered basket discarded by mom.
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Vatsala Radhkeesoon
Born from
the Divine’s golden thread
Molded with
perfection, purity and grace
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Himani Sood
Today I will fall out of love with you.
I’ll sweep out the motes of dust
that clung to your feet.
Each speck a single story,
of your worldly being.
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Pavol Janik
In a horizontal mirror
of the straightened bay
the points of an angular city
stabbing directly into the starry sky.
(Click here to read)
Abdelmajid Erouhi
Never talk to a bee as it is fecundating a sunflower,
Never talk to a butterfly as it is flying over a daisy,
Just keep seeing and thinking, and never glower
At them, just wonder on the way they go crazy!
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Jibonanada Das ( Translated by Suparna Sengupta)
For a thousand years, am I trailing the paths of this earth —
From the oceans of Ceylon, amidst darkling nights, to the Malay seas
Much have I wandered; To Bimbisara and Asoka’s ghostly days
Have I been; even farther, to the distant dark Vidarbha wen;
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Dr.Santosh Bakaya
Black Beauty
It was just a small thing.
Come to think of it, not actually small,
but pretty big.
Huge and black. A Black Beauty.
(Click here to read)
Juan Pablo Mobili
To Victoria, my grandmother
My grandmother had inherited
a wooden egg from her mother who
had used it to mend countless old socks;
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Pravat Kumar Pradhy
the stones stack
one above another
in deep silence
void mingles with the wind
rumbling into the emptiness
(Click here to read)
Aditya Shankar
Katsaridaphobia/Gospel According to Cockroaches
And the insect haters, repellent sprayers, broom
wielders will eventually reside beneath soil:
the second life. The hand that swats thy loved
ones will lie defenseless. Time of cockroaches
and oppressed shall arrive.
Orbindu Ganga
Painted in a shade
Rested in her cave,
Silent enough to be staid
To be camouflaged
(Click here to read)
Manu Dash
The ocean is now equipped to endorse swimming.
It’s time to endure the ineluctable annual trip.
The sky mirrors the swashbuckling journey;
(Click here to read)
Matthew James Friday
The Birds in These Strange Times
A pair of kites have come for the lake
now the airport is closed, buoyed by empty
skies, rustling wooded hills, lacey waters.
(Click here to read)
Gauri Dixit
The blades rotate at a constant speed
My eyes etch a pattern on the thick layer of dust
‘The fan will not clean itself’
The mind says
(Click here to read)
Dr Sangita Swechcha
Over the rim of the eyes
welled weary are the tears
asking the eyes—
“Should I trickle or not?”
(Click here to read more)
Dustin Pickering
Before I met you, my life was full of joy.
Before I met you, my life was full of fear.
The day I met you was fearful and joyful,
a joyous unbinding from merciless wounds
(Click here to read more)
Vasile Baghiu
Yesterday, I met poetry
on the stony Loch Long shore,
near Ardpeaton.
(Click here to read more)
Amit Shankar Saha
Fear of your inexistence
surrounds me at night
like muggers in a dark lane.
Fear that hoods my head,
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Barnali Ray Shukla
Her home wears nothing but a silence
that waits–where noir feels warm like
a quilt of breaths, as it begins to reel in
(Click here to read)
Ali Jan Maqsood
Gestured the mountains of the outlooks
Offered dryly, albeit, wet in nature
The glittering beauty of the flowers Out in the sun of shadow
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Moinak Dutta
Living in the times of Lockdown
Living in the times of Lockdown
Is curiously surreal,
For spaces we, the humans leav, are claimed by others,
Like pigeons come in flocks to dance on the chowrasta,
(Click here to read)
Basudhara Roy
In teeming landscapes of
punctiliously ordered signifiers,
I strive to break free of grooved
meanings to rebelliously create
(Click here to read)
Eduard Schmidts-Zorner
I tie the Ariadne’s thread
into my wide-meshed cardial net,
where points of view dissolve
and deep thoughts evolve.
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Annie Blake
The Boy with The Yellow Light and more
/ for the cupid charges his dart / but to dodge love / for eros is invisible without a lamp /and who the hell knows who we’re really marrying / and venus was angry she had to come down to earth / for kenosis is giving up being god / living between the dark /
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Mutiu Olawuyi
Stay home not with fams
Cleanse not your palms
Dash no space
Be deaf… –
Death!
(Click here to read more)
Melissa Chapell
Elmhurst, O Elmhurst,
I did not know you in your mothering shift
of glass and mortar.
I ticked off your name in my mind
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Mallika Bhaumik
love quarantined
I pull up the blinds
and look at the glassy darkness waiting outside,
night is a pause,
droplets of the day’s fatigue gathered in its palm,
Christian Manners
In solitude’s splendour, I was blessed
by that graciously guiding breeze,
fervently free with towering thoughts,
as I philosophized amidst the trees…
(Click here to read more)
Nabina Das
When the Quotidian Wrote our Notes of Isolation
We were brought up by folks who respected the encrusted time,
wound in their watches every morning, opened windows to days.
*
They swept the morning breeze with either their prayerful ways
or brisk footprints out about the gardens of mint and marigolds.
(Click here to read more)
Desmond Kon
If I say I love you.
If I say this love we share will be our last.
If I say we should trust our every emotion.
(Click here to read more)
Aditya Shankar
Was so tiny
he did not belong among humans.
Too big for microbes and fungus to befriend.
Too small for mushrooms
(Click here to read more)
Sheldon John Dias
Gazing into a mirror on a Saturday morning…
As I gaze into the crystal flattened and stretched
I search for meanings – of life and of memories etched.
Who am I?
(Click here to read)
Melissa A Chappell
Do you remember,
as the alarm bells were crying,
how we were silent in the sun,
our blood oiling red with the ruins of the sun.
(Click here to read more)
Marc Nair
In her last hours, birdlike,
heaves of brittle breath
flutter like grace notes
in a sodden sonata.
(Click here to read more)
Ra Sh
Two Covid-19 viruses meet Albert Camus
Two covid-19 teenage viruses walked around the city
assessing the damage. On Route vers l’ouest, they found
mansions with cars parked in front and little gardens.
Four dogs ran out of the house dragging a well dressed
(Click here to read)
Nalini Priyadarshni
Come to the summer of my arms
the winter of our discontent has lasted too long
peppering our wisdom with salt and snow
settling into nook and crannies of our being
(Click here to read)
Nishi Pulugurtha
A garden tracing its time back
Centuries,
The river flowing by
As it had always done
They have been there together
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Sarita Jenamani
Winter is usually foggy here
It blurs the reflection of your dream
in the mirror of your imagination
Night does not sojourn here
but when the snowy night
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