Poetry at the Heart of the Nation is in its 7th issue now. It has been a great journey of providing a platform for IPPL poets to see their poems published in a journal that is a kind of a flagship of the organization that gives them a sense of community and for some even…
All posts in Issue 7, April 2026
Gopal Lahiri
The Gatherings Some moments are words enslaved in a thesaurus they become a whip, an evening storm.Some moments linger like a summer breezethey speak in only sky-blue tongues.Some moments grow only in liminal spaceseach space is placed like an uneven surface.Some moments reflect elegies and epigramswhile others may come into a quieter focus.Some moments reshape…
White Noise: The Nature of Inspiration and Creativity
Monobina Nath There are two forms of inspiration dwelling deep within us— both encoded in our DNA. The first is creativity— fluid and continuous, like a soft current of white noise. The second is originality: an enigmatic force, fragmented yet compelling, diverging with cracks that demand to be bridged. To bridge these cracks, originality must…
Heyali: The Enigmatic Puzzle-poems of Bengali Folk Literature
Rudrajit Paul “Heyali” is a specific type of poem, mainly of the folk oral tradition, in rural Bengal. By “Bengal” the author here means the entire geographical area of the Indian subcontinent inhabited by Bengali speaking people over millennia. These poems were composed and handed down from one generation to the next by village people…
Review of Subhransu Maitra’s Dark Harvest
Reviewer: Nishi Pulugurtha Rehor Press, 2025, Hyderabad, Rs. 200/- Translator, author and poet, Subhranshu Maitra’s latest volume of poems, Dark Harvest, is a collection of 90 poems that speak of grief and loss, of people and places, of cherished memories and lingering moments. “A Brief Interlude in the Grand Programme of Providence” is an introduction…
Review of Sanjukta Dasgupta’s Dinosaur Granny’s Story-poems
Reviewer: Navamalati Neog Chakraborty Published by Penprints- Price Rs 499/ January 2026 Umberto Eco had once said, ‘To survive you must tell stories.’ Thus, since eternity, Grandmothers have always beautifully picked up this role, and it was thus that Mao Jedong in 1960 held the notion that, Women hold up half of the sky.…
Interview with Navamalati Neog Chakraborty
Interviewer: Amit Shankar Saha You have been a prolific writer and translator as well as an artist apart from being an academician. As a poet, short story writer, critic and a translator, which of these aspects of yours do you love practicing the most and why? Ans: Being a poet came to me as leaves…
Chandrani Mukherjee
The Mirror on the Wall The mirror looked at meWith kindnessThat surprised me. In the corner of the majestic roomWhere furniture lay strewn,Ostensibly attempting to overwhelm the ordinary,The mirror stood alone.You could see the world converge,Yet not your own deep thoughtsThat you were running away from.The platter of fruits, The unmade bed,A few clothes disarrayedin…
Sarban Bhattacharya
Untitled So many times, my brittle heart is ripped By matchless agony of failed desire.That chronic torpor firmly keeps it gripped Beneath its heavy metaphoric mire. A well-poised neuron sanely won’t behave, When, in such bizarre fashion, days are passed, Of sweet temptation fraught that I would crave, A false delight that disappears to dust.…
Lopamudra Banerjee
The Lover and His Muse The somnambulist lover paints in patches of burnt sienna, fiery yellow, the blood red, the fuchsia pink melts in his palette, singing a truant autumnal sonata. Those hands, once robust and juvenile, had crafted poetry,romanced with words with the steady insistence of an awestruck paramour. Juices of poesy spilled over,…