Anemone Morning and Other Poems

By Gopal Lahiri

Within the artistic tapestry of Anemone Morning and other poems, poet Gopal Lahiri’s creativity flourishes, weaving together the vibrant hues of nature’s canvas, the tender whispers of love’s longing and belatedness, the pulsating rhythm of bustling cities, the nostalgic charm of diverse locales, and the intricate dance of human and abstract relationships. Each verse, a masterpiece painted with strokes of emotional resonance, invites the readers to immerse themselves in its profound beauty.

Gopal Lahiri in Conversation with Kabir Deb

Lahiri asserts poetry's vital agency against societal fragmentation and censorship, critically assessing its evolving forms and craft challenges in a digitally saturated literary landscape.

By Kabir Deb

KD: Greetings, Gopal Sir! It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to chat with you. How do you identify yourself as a poet amidst a crowd that’s poetic in hate, misogyny and censorship?

GL: Poetry is a part of my life, and it resides in my heart. The heart does not die in outside noise and chaos when one thinks it should. Despite everything I move on. Many of us believe that poetry is something unsayable. Perhaps some essential parts can’t be spoken. Honestly, it’s a human truth beyond words.

KD: What makes poetry so important in the present time? How do you approach the genre in modern context?

GL: In this time of turmoil and tribulations, we need a sane voice who can act as a therapist and who can be better than a poet. I consider the poet is one who will not be compromised, who is bent on to leave a trace in words, to transmute depths of feeling into the nuances of art. My approach to poetry in modern context, is similar. I want to reach out to others in the form of a social act and get more connected in an otherwise compartmental world.

KD: How has poetry changed from the time of your study life to your current working period? What is your overview on the change?

GL: Poetry has changed considerably during the passage of time. In my study life, I am more inclined to rhyming poems like, Sonnets and Sestina, Villanelle and Pantoum. But now rhyming poems are a big no-no.

Modern poets embrace rightfully ‘Neoliberalism’. To break the shackles of conceived barriers they explore the newer literary themes and techniques. Exploration of alienation and disconnection, feminism, highlighting marginalized voices, non-linear narratives, eco-critical issues, use of paradox and sarcasm encompass the ‘Neoliberalism’.

I also imagine that my poems should foster critical thinking, challenge the traditional notions of identity and community, and encourage experimentation with the form and narrative. I am talking about Japanese form poems as well.

KD: Everyone is a poet today. Everyone can be a poet today. These are two statements that comes in our mind when we go through our social media channels. How has the entire world of social media changed the dynamics of poetry? Also, what do you think could be the future of poetry when relevancy is a critical phenomenon?

GL: There is now a glut of poems flooding the social media. There are positives and negatives as one perceives. Now, you don’t need to run around the editors and wait for their acceptances.

The opportunity is much more, and you can write to your hearts’ content and post poems as you like at any time in social media and invite your friends to read and ask their comments which are mostly good as they are your close acquaintance, and your followers may increase day by day.

You are under the impression that your poetry deserves acclaim. But these do a great disservice to the poet’s fraternity.

Social media poetry is suddenly everywhere on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and increasingly in print too. These short poems accompanied by illustrations are shared by countless readers who have millions of followers who follow for a dose of poetry and inspiration.

They have helped poetry go viral in a way it has not been able to do before. Then there are numerous poetry organizations of different geographical locations and from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and genders all over the world that have increased the growth of poetry in social media.

Indian English Poetry is no longer confined to Indian shore and reach to the global readers in one click of the mouse.

One observation is that perhaps the modern-day poets are overlooking the grammar of poetry. The rhythm, flow and syntax are the backbone of poetry, and the poets should not neglect this. In earlier times, we used to look at the senior poets for their advice and suggestion.

Now it’s rarely practiced, and the poets(?) flood the social network with poorly crafted poems without any proper tutoring and the quality of poems is fast deteriorating. This is a downside of the social media and we all should give a thought on it especially.

KD: Your poems often filter the dark debris of society and prepare them for our sane eyes with a beauty that could be acknowledged. In times of hatred, when dissent is being eroded by most of our society, how necessary is it to filter the dark and disturbing elements? Also, should love poetry be written in times of war or is it the other way around?

GL: Henry James says that ‘three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind, the second is to be kind and the third is to be kind. I prefer kindness and I believe I can connect with the common people through this path.

Poetry cohorts us. It also makes us feel less lonely and more connected. As it happens, I am more enchanted by the surroundings with its smell, sound, fissures and lineaments and their intricate relations with the people. Writing, especially poetry is something which is essential for me. Poems that I am creating are just part of me. They echo reality and as well as surreal beats and want to explore the unknown. I never fume in the lines, and I feel comfortable with this. My language of expression is restrained and subtle.

Love poetry is not always confined between two persons but love for the mankind as well. So, it can be written at any point of time when there is war or not.

KD: What is the one driving factor that keeps you hooked to this genre? How’s the market treating poetry?

GL: I have mentioned earlier that Poetry is an integral part of my life. I want to stay always in the poetic scape which Andre Breton says poetry as a ‘room of marvels’ or Seamus Heany calls it ‘language in the orbit’.

Poetry unfortunately has a very limited readers and the book market does not care much for the poets unless of course you are an award-winning poet. Only poets read other poets if at all and the readers are becoming miniscule day by day. Maybe poetry is much more emotionally difficult, accelerated thinking and intellectually demanding for the common people. May be but I don’t know

KD: Could you recommend five of your favourite poetry collections of all time?

GL: My top five favourite collections are

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
Love poems of Neruda.

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Review: Anemone Morning and Other Poems

Lahiri's poetry navigates individual vulnerability against societal indifference, exposing the profound stakes of human apathy toward patriarchal violence and ecological decay.

By Kabir Deb

In poetry, it is very important to release our own system before the many bodies working out there. Some would develop a connection with them. Others will become repulsive because of self-doubt and unawareness. Verses do not rely on technicalities. They rely on whatever breaches those techniques. To attain these qualities, one has to be sensitive and observant only to be able to feel the delicate moments and to not get veiled by manipulative voices. Gopal Lahiri’s book of poems Anemone Morning and other poems, is a reflection of the poet’s thoughts which form tributaries out of the mind. All these tributaries have something to say which cannot be conveyed by living inside a crowded head. These poems claw towards freedom, free the writer’s vulnerabilities and unaccomplished desires. The objective is to acknowledge complete the finite wishes in this infinity.

In the poem Azure Music, the poet squeezes the expansion around him to keep before us a few drops of its sap by drawing it back to its origin – his self. There is a reason why the human mind is equal to the universe. We have explored a similar percentage of both the brain and the cosmos. To draw us back to our thoughts, our minds have to include everything associated with our primary senses. The poet tells us how necessary it is to relive the moments not only to experience them but also to learn what slipped off our hands. Only then we would be content with finite elements.

I will sing, not knowing which raga or lullabies

not knowing,

How close I am to the edge, to that place, I wish to go

not knowing tomorrow,

Just one day, I will listen to the music of Azure,

Just one day.

Spirits are nothing but energy. They have the kinetic energy to maintain movement and seek for another body that resonates with them. Their potential energy helps them to be patient. In the poem Incomplete Prayers, Gopal Lahiri speaks about the spirits which reside around us, not to scare us, but to quench our loneliness. At night, we satiate our bodies with thoughts that scare those who are fond of daylight. There we leave our prayers incomplete because, if we go by science, human metabolism slows down during night time. So, whatever we do, our body would not permit us to reach completion. When we release our insides out, our mind quietly transports into the place of nothingness. The poet says, our children enter the sanctum. We hand the incomplete prayers to them.

The night does not see anything,

but in this brightness of saliva,

all of us leaving behind

incomplete prayers…

It cannot be denied that human actions have already exhausted Earth and it is only a few years before it gives up on us. It has not yet shed us out of its memory and so we are getting to cherish another day. Gopal Lahiri in his poem First Page, speaks about how we are filling oceans with our debris and establishing the death of whales as a collateral damage. We do not believe in developing our listening skill to understand the voiceless creatures. Those who work on it drive to fill the ears that have stopped listening, eyes which open to a fake world. The poet questions people who find peace in being killers. He also asks us if the entirety gets to the end, what would be our history? If something like us grows here, it will live to write a bloodbath and it can’t be a content of the first page.

What will happen is already happening.

Will this be evidence in future studies?

Of human extinction?

Or such a thing on the first page?

Anemone is a flower that’s delicate and sensitive. To address something that’s unlawful and nefarious, one has to get disturbed. Those who do not have their feathers ruffled even after listening to a riot, or a murder or a gang rape, they cannot be referred to as sensitive. People who bloom and live a life like that of Anemone are going to dissent and protest. In the poem Armchair Puzzle, the poet disturbs readers by giving us a glimpse of what women have to go through in times of crisis in a patriarchal society. He breaks a mob’s intention by dissecting its actions to violate a woman. Later, he puts a dagger in the heart of those who relax in their armchairs and throw a few words by keeping their safety in mind. Change will affect every living or non-living constituent. Those who are afraid of confronting the metamorphosis, their cowardly protest can crush the movement.

they come with terror and destruction

bodies slither into pieces

the arc of growing up – eight across

a blank is left – armchair is the best fit –

Anemone Morning and other poems is an important addition in the poetry circle. It addresses diverse issues from the perception of the personal self. One can deny what the poet writes. Others can agree with his opinions. But what remains at the very centre is how these verses cannot be ignored.

THEMES Grief Patriarchial structures Posthuman Text

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Anemone Morning and Other Poems

By Gopal Lahiri

Gopal Lahiri in Conversation with Kabir Deb

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Review: Anemone Morning and Other Poems

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