Bio
Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 33 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry is published across more than one hundred fifty journals and anthologies globally He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021and Best of the Net for poetry in 2025. He has been conferred First Jayanta Mahapatra National Award on literature in 2024 for his significant contribution in Indian English Writing.
Gopal Lahiri
Ebbs and Flows
From a distance I look so tiny, then I talk to
myself, from inside my life feels enormous,
unlimited but it hides in the sparkling dark.
I imagine someone is noticing me and I know
all things I want to do or build with my body
seem like nothing, can't be seen from within.
Those ebbs and flows in my mind dip me
in aesthetic light, seductive in shadow,
they do not know why my creation exists.
I glow with the warm feeling of the setting sun
casting long shadows across the porch,
and the silence is riotous around the fireflies.