We looked at each other
in disbelief.
Buddha
and me.
He was clad
in an age old
duplicate polo sweatshirt
and a hippie donated blue jeans.
Whereas I was
wearing a saffron robe .
After a while,
little rattled
by our silence,
we smiled indulgently
and then looked at each other
with belief.
The blue of the sky
beckoned invitingly.
We sat together
dipping out feet
in the creek
within a circle of ferns
and mature tall trees
far from the horns
and screeching brakes
of time.
-Bhuwan Thapaliya
Illustration Nick Victor
Nepalese poet, Bhuwan Thapaliya is the author of four poetry collections. Bhuwan Thapaliya’s books are Safa Tempo: Poems New and Selected (Nirala Publications, New Delhi), Our Nepal, Our Pride (Cyberwit.net, Allahabad), Rhythm of the Heart( Lulu Publication) and Verses from the Himalayas. Thapaliya has read his poetry and attended seminars in venues around the world, including South Korea, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal. His poems have been widely published in leading literary journals, newspapers and periodicals such as Kritya, Pandemic Magazine, The Foundling Review, Strong Verse, International Times, Countercurrents.org, myrepublica , The Kashmir Pulse, Taj Mahal Review, Poetry Life and Times, Ponder Savant, VOICES( Education Project), Longfellow Literary Project, Poets Against the War etc. His poetries have also been published in the CD’s and Books such as The New Pleiades Anthology of Poetry (ISBN 1- 878431-52- 8) , Tonight: An Anthology of World Love Poetry (The Poets Printery, East London, South Africa,2008, pp.118, Paperback, ISBN 0-620-41372-7), The Strand Book of International Poets 2010 , of Nepalese Clay, Pratik and in many more.