Abundant Seeing – a poem by Gopal Lahiri

Abundant Seeing

Into the distances of the early morning,
the loose gravels break into golden sediments.
a blue oriole floats over, looking for the tree top.

The half-awake sun is lazy, stirring space and colour,
my two palms meet tenderly in silence under the canopy 
of Madhavi creepers near the Ashram gate.

A lean Santhal boy carries a bamboo stick,
walk across slowly, perhaps in search of two ancient
Chhatim trees,

Dewdrops sparkle on the white hibiscus petals,
in a field of mild sunlight between two Sal trees,
the rays come from far afar and say, ‘See’,

At this exact moment,
dip in anywhere, and delight follows.

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 31 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred journals and anthologies globally His poems are translated in 18 languages and published in 16 countries. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021 and received a Setu Excellence Award, Pittsburg, in 2020. Recent Credits: One Art Journal, Poetry Breakfast Journal, Verse-Virtual Journal, Setu Journal, Kitaab Journal, Himalayan Diary, Dissident Voice, The Piker Press, Confluence, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Wise Owl Journal and elsewhere.