With not enough tomorrows to go round, and all yesterdays in short supply

Night closes in with its breath taking grip/ Night that walks in the guise of day.

The Kathmandu sky sliced with unlive wires. Highways broken like bread or a body.

A few years ago, my husband and I shared a flat in London with my brother and sister. On some kind of quest for self-improvement, we decided that we should all read more poetry.

In our continuing celebration of poetry this week, we bring to you two gems from the very first print volume of La.Lit, by highly regarded Nepali poets Manu Manjil and Momila.

Many Nepalis put great stock in bravery, seeing no irony in praising the bloodlust of Gurkhas in the same breath as they claim for themselves the apostle of non-violence, Gautam Buddha.

All Nepalis are poets at heart. How could they not be, living in this terrible contusion of the sublime and the second-rate? So every day is poetry day in Nepal, even if someone, somewhere, deemed 21 March to be World Poetry Day and we feel bad we missed it. We’ll make up for it. To […]

On 20 February this year, the eighth-grade students of East Horizon English Higher Secondary School in Jhapa found their language teacher, Rekha Ma’am, seated amongst them. That day, our team of four weary Word Warriors was taking on her role. After 16 long hours on a night bus from Kathmandu, we decided to throw our […]

Weave then, weave o quickly weave your sham veneration. Knit me webs of winter sagehood, nightcap, and the fungoid sequins of a crown. – Wole Soyinka     Dear Sirs, I wish you’d arrived sooner. I’ve been waiting since 1983. HQ sent a notice of disapproval. A 7-year-old, they wrote, has scant need to speak […]