After Writing A Few Poems In English, One Likes Call Oneself A Poet Or Poetess Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

After writing a handful of poems
In English,
One likes to call oneself
A poet or a poetess
Just after a few poems
In English,
Here in India
As they know it
The critic is unavailable
As for the dispute
Whether English of England
Or of India,
Whose literature is this
Of the English saheb
Or the brown saheb?

The prizes will not come to naturally,
Nor will the awards,
But one can be sure of it
That he is going to survive
As a poet
Into the history of Indian English poetry,
If not as a major poet
Then surely as a minor poet,
Just the carbon-copies will do,
The stencilled papers,
Lithographed and typed,
Even the handwritten will do,
Just assure you that you write.