YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY
written by: Bibhu Padhi
For Sri Debjyoti Mohanty
Each day follows yesterday,
foreshadows the following day.
Each tree looks behind, remembers
the seed, imagines its further growth.
I know, the trees I see (nearly
all of them) will outlive me, most of us.
Why then this waiting for the end?
Why the celebrations of eternity?
Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere—
in our hereditary beliefs, our faith.
Why are we here, why these
temporary extensions, day by day?
Even today we do not know so many
things—shadowy, night-like.
It seems an ancestral wish
is to be fulfilled through a line
uttered with love, just as it seems
there is someone yet who can answer,
but who is still to be born.
Faithfully, we wait.
My eleventh book of poetry, Sea Dreams, is due out in June this year. My poems have appeared in distinguished magazines throughout the English-speaking world, such as The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Stand, Wasafiri, The American Scholar, Colorado Review, Confrontation,The New Criterion, New Letters, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Poetry (Chicago), Southwest Review, The Literary Review and more. They have been included in numerous anthologies and textbooks. Three of the most recent are Language for a New Century (Norton) 60 Indian Poets (Penguin) and The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (HarperCollins).
Also, I have written a book on D. H. Lawrence (Whitston) and (with my wife, Minakshi Padhi) a reference book on Indian Philosophy and Religion (McFarland).
Also, I have written a book on D. H. Lawrence (Whitston) and (with my wife, Minakshi Padhi) a reference book on Indian Philosophy and Religion (McFarland).
Latest posts by Bibhu Padhi (see all)
- YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY - May 16, 2017
