A book of Irish-language poems, Faoi Scáil Gheal na hIndia,
all touching on aspects of India that have influenced me over the past 20 years or so
will be launched on Wednesday 3rd
at 6 p.m.
i.e. next month: 3-12-25 in the
United Arts Club (founded by W. B. Yeats and others), Upper Fitzwilliam St.
https://www.unitedartsclubdublin.com/club-history
The book is introduced by Liam Carson, director IMRAM litfest,
to be launched with other new titles from LeabhairCOMHAR by former head of TG4 Alan Esslemont
and dedicated to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) allegedly poisoned by the Americans.
Spiritual figures featured in Faoi Scáil Gheal na hIndia include
Meher Baba
Buddha
Bhima Boi
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Ashtávakra
There is a photo-haiku section on Varanasi featuring work by Kolkata's master-photographer Debiprasad Mukherjee
with whom the author worked on the bilingual photo-haiku book The Stars Are His Bones,
texts culled from an early translation of the Upanishads.
Another section, Krishnamurphy, contains lighter poems about the eponymous Krishnamurphy,
an Indian-Hiberno guru (who derives his name from seer Jiddu Krishnamurti and his unbelievable disciple U.G. Krishnamurti):
Other poems include a tribute to Fr. Stan Swamy, S.J., Jesuit priest and tribal activist who died defending 'intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists, students, leaders - all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India'.
Gabriel has written many poems about the arrested poet Varavara Rao, two of which are published here. Other poets featured are the Communist poet Vishnu Khare, Amarjit Chandan, Amulya Barua, etc.
There is a short section on ancient Indian poetry taken from the author's blog (currently in hiatus):
The section from the author's blog (above) features poems by Indian friends and acquaintances, including K. Satchidanandan and his daughter Sabitha, poet-publisher Hemant Divate, who published a selection of Gabriel's Poems, I Open My Poem, Ranjit Hoskote, Udyan Thakker, Dileep Jhaveri, Prabodh Parik, Mustansir Dalvi, Rati Saxene, H. S. Shivaprakash, Jerry Pinto, Maaz Bin Bilal, Abhay K., American-Kashmiri poet Rafiq Kathwari, Sujata Bhatt, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Ajmer Rode, Rochelle Potkar, K. Ramesh, Kala Ramesh, Subodh Sarkar, etc.
