‘A Day-Long Cloudburst’ – Two poems by Kiriti Sengupta
Poetry: ‘In the crematorium, / the priest asks me to / smear ghee on my / father’s skin. He ensures / the fire finds Baba luscious.’
Hibiscus – a poem by Kiriti Sengupta
I’ve to leave.
As long as I’m alive,
I’ll clean the muck off the earth.
My pledge to the newborn:
I must make the world liveable for you. — Sukanta Bhattacharya*
Poem by Kiriti Sengupta
The Untold Saga
It only took the two hands
to kill the evil; it only took
the trident to destroy the opponent.
Yet autumn arrives through your
larger-than-life avatar teamed with
the ten arms. Like many women
you followed the husband; you had
several other weapons to fight the war…
The Y-Gene
My friends were aware of the wish I nurtured.
If I had a daughter,
I would name her Srividya!
I was not influenced by any actor.
Our prayer room hosted a dazzling
crystal Sri Yantra on the holy altar.
When God Is a Woman
How many householders meet in a whorehouse?
How many mujras dwell in a kotha?
How many neonates hew to a bordello?
Like her admirers
the god is silent.
In her sinews
hides a hint of soil
from the yard of courtesans.
Violence
On my birthday,
Bitan genially offers
Rushdie’s Knife.
He indites:
Not all daggers kill.
We were scared;
stabbing of the author
made to newsflashes
and debates. Probing
unveiled a layered context.
“The Expectant Mother” by Kiriti Sengupta
She lies supine.
Close to her chest, she holds
a greased mango leaf,
blazed to kohl. Her eyes
whist like a whisper.
She stretches her hands
to douse the sky
with blood and water.
Rosary – a poem by Kiriti Sengupta
1
Pearls find a way
to their oyster.
2
Keeping count for a one-off.
Four Poems by Kiriti Sengupta
Editor’s Note: Deploying languages of mythology, medicine, and aesthetics, Kiriti Sengupta’s poems probe deeper to reveal what lies behind the aura, what the light cannot penetrate, and what the mainstream understanding lacks. As always, Sengupta’s poems conceal more than they reveal and reveal more than they conceal. – Mosarrap H. Khan
Gravity
The aircraft takes off.
First officer alerts,
The dismal weather may cause turbulence.
Upheavals follow air-pockets.
My scared son grips the armrests.
I comfort him, Relax! Bumps help us
realize the earth.
Bucolic Bengal: Poems On Rural Life
These poems are based on the rural life of West Bengal. It’s a collaborative work, featuring images by award-winning photographer Plabon Das.
A Better Place to Rest: Three Poems by Kiriti Sengupta
Poetry: ‘Death pauses verdict; the authority mars evidence. / The doomed is put on the pyre; rallies slit through / the silence.’ – Kiriti Sengupta
What is the lifespan of memory?
What Is The Lifespan Of Memory?
Until a mouser keeps calm licking the milk bowl?
Or the snake woman mourns her partner?.
Meeting the Artist
I wanted to see him for a considerable period, of course, for a purpose. I wished to offer him a few of my poetry books—not because I had read a whole bunch of his poems and considered him a great poet, but because alongside my poems, my books featured paintings and illustrations by a few talented artists from Calcutta.
On Kunwar Narain, “the Buddha of contemporary poetry”
Regardless of the genre of writing, the discourses and theories about translation hardly offer any help to the readers. The fundamental purpose of translating a work is to secure a wider readership, primarily counting on the readers who can’t read the original text.
Conversations: Bitan Chakraborty and Kiriti Sengupta
“Every detail is credible, anchored in the mundane reality of city-dwellers in urban metropolises in contemporary India. [Bitan] Chakraborty is not a fantasist or fabulist; reality is an unvarying constant in his stories,” writes academic and critic Indrajit Bose in the World Literature Today.