From
Kathmandu, Nepal, Bhuwan Thapaliya is a world
acclaimed poet. He summons thoughts and words from deep caverns, gently carving
them into verses of emotion and reflection. He is the author of four poetry collections, including the
recently released Safa Tempo:
Poems New and Selected; and Our Nepal, Our Pride - Narrative verses of love,
peace, and human understanding.
Poetry by
Bhuwan has been included in The New
Pleiades Anthology of Poetry, and Tonight:
An Anthology of World Love Poetry, as well as in literary journals such
as Urhalpool, MahMag, Kritya,
FOLLY, The Vallance Review, Nuvein Magazine, Foundling Review, Poetry Life and
Times, Poets Against the War, Voices in Wartime, Taj Mahal Review, Strong Verse,
poetseers.org, theasiamag.com, asianamericanpoetry.com,
and more.
Bhuwan
has read his poetry and attended seminars in venues around the world, including
South Korea, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal.
Recently,
I ordered several signed copies of Bhuwan’s poetry collection Verses from the Himalayas; one for
myself and several for a poetry group. The books are in the mail as of this
writing. If you’d like to receive a signed copy of Bhuwan’s poetry, send him a
message.
I’m sick of not seeing you
by Bhuwan
Thapaliya
He poured
himself
a glass of his
thoughts
two years after
she won
a scholarship to
heaven
to pursue her
PhD
in life after
death
and sat down
beside
her antique
gramophone
with his senses
straining in the
dark.
“I’m sick
of not seeing
you,
I’m seeing only
the back of an
African Wild Elephant
and the wide
open jaws of the vultures.
Helpless days of
confinement,
a stultifying
inertia
and no knowledge
of what comes next.
Where are your
eyes in the sky,
Grandma?” he sighed.
Where are the
bald eagles?
Where are the
rhododendrons?
Where? Where?
Where?
He stammered and
cried.
Do you remember your
first poem? What was it about?
The first
poem I wrote was Darkness above light
in the year 2002. I was 24-25 years old then. It was a metaphysical poem.
It was about the deteriorating condition of the humanity. It was my
passionate protest in the face of fast changing world. I am still protesting,
though studies show that we, as a race, have become less violent over the
centuries though citizens of developed countries tend to hold a belief to the
contrary due to increased media coverage and exposure of violence. Needless to
say, we're doing something right, but what is it? Cultural or emotional
evolution? Increased life span, leading to an increased value of life?
However, on contemplation I think humanity will prevail one way or the other
and you can’t have animosity with the humanity forever.
Name a few favorite poets and poems…
I adore poems of John Donne, John Milton, Robert Frost, Mahmud Darwish, Pablo Neruda, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and Yuyutsu RD Sharma.
Mules by Yuyutsu RD Sharma; If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda; Crazy by Laxmi Prasad Devkota; and To a Young Poet by Mahmud Darwish, are some of my favorite poems.
I adore poems of John Donne, John Milton, Robert Frost, Mahmud Darwish, Pablo Neruda, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and Yuyutsu RD Sharma.
Mules by Yuyutsu RD Sharma; If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda; Crazy by Laxmi Prasad Devkota; and To a Young Poet by Mahmud Darwish, are some of my favorite poems.
Do you write poetry for
yourself, or for others, or for both?
We don’t
“decide” to be a poet; we just “become” one. And isn't writing poetry a
continuous course of experimenting and evolving, of absolving our heart of
certain issues about which we feel very sturdily? I write poetry not just for
the sake of writing but rather to understand the basic questions that all human
beings ask in their struggle for the existence: What is humanity? What is
peace? Why so much corruption, poverty and suffering in many parts of the
world? Where is democracy? What is love? What is the ultimate destination of
the human life? These questions soon alter themselves into my poems. My
poems are an examination of the world around me, and my poems evoke characters,
events, and landscape with rich use of visual details.
Sometimes
I write for myself but most of the time I write for others and anyone who reads
my work may notice that there is an urge toward social progress, toward peace
and solidarity, toward global love and understanding. I am an advocate
for the globalization of love and thorough my poems I am advocating love, peace
and universal solidarity.
Is it important to you
if your poems get published or not?
I had a
dream in which a voice told me, ‘What we have is less important. What we owe to
each other matters most.’ I didn't argue with the voice – and I was
emancipated. Today after all these years I am realizing that as a poet we owe a
lot to society and the society owes us a lot too, and our correlation can never
be redeemed. Publication isn’t the most important thing but as a poet, I
would love to see my poems published because poets aren’t poets for nothing and
poems aren’t just poems. After all, no poet would make a river flow without the
river being there in his mind for nothing.
Do you think poetry is
important in the global scale of things?
God gave
us a mind but not thought. Life is our opportunity to cultivate thoughts. Yet
in the field of thought, mind is only the ploughman; the seed is the heart. And
what sprouts straight from the heart is poetry. Yes, poetry is very
important in the contemporary world because I think poetry is the medium of the
emotional cooperation from one heart to another, from one soul to another, from
one truth to another, from one dream to another, from one race to another, from
one religion to another, from one generation to another, from one language to
another and from one nation to another.
Do you write a specific
genre of poetry, or do you delve into all genres?
It is a
wise poet who understands the delicate balance between realism and dreams and
it is this that makes a poem sing. Considering so, I delve into all genre
of poetry.
What is your favorite
type of poem?
Anybody
can write a poem but only a few poets can make it speak, and it is in the
shelter of this hope I live. I don’t belong to the brood of poets who write
regularly while sitting in a drawing room in a specific form. I write in different
places and locations. I believe in reaching out for something larger rather
than waiting for it to come to me, and considering so I get off my comfy couch,
get out of my room, and go out into the real world. I love my freedom and I
adore free verse because I don’t want to be caged by the constraints of meters
and pentameters and all. When I am writing a poem I forget the meter,
forget the metaphors, forget the rhymes, and forget style and all. I think
poetry is not about meter and rhymes only, it is more about people and their
life, and it is more about their tears and smiles.
What are you currently
writing?
I am
currently working on my debut Novel, Nepal
Dreams, based on the positive power of thought and its practical
implementation in the contemporary world. The book will hit the market in
December, 2013. In the book, I aim to strengthen some of the economic
responsibilities of the individual as an important service to mankind in a
nation trodden by massive unemployment and psychological poverty.
 |
| Bhuwan (center) on holiday in the USA has dedicated his new release Tranquility of Life to his friends Rajesh (left) and Ashim (right). |
I am also
working on my new poetry collection, Tranquility
of Life.
This book
is scheduled to be released somewhere around November, 2013. The kindle edition
will be released in the month of October. In this book I am seeing the world
through the eyes of my best friends Ashim Pokharel and Rajesh Sharma. This
book is intended as recognition of the gifts of friendship and the vitality
friends impart to in our life. It’s a tribute book to our friendship and
this amazing thing called life.
What does poetry mean to
you?
Poetry
isn't a ladder to my success. To me, it’s a holy bridge. And that sums up
everything.
Follow
Bhuwan…
Book: Our Nepal, Our Pride
Publisher
Link: http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/66
Book: Safa Tempo: Poems New and Selected
Publisher
Link: http://niralapublications.com/new-booksarrivals/
Facebook
Page: https://www.facebook.com/bhuwan.thapaliya.7
Poem Links:
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