KATHMANDU, May 16: Homraj Acharya, a renowned social activist, writer, and advocate for social justice, presents his latest poetry anthology, Farmers of Blue Smoke. More than a collection of poems, the book reads as a lived archive of Nepal’s social fractures, migration, memory, and transformation. As a changemaker who has walked across Nepal campaigning against caste discrimination, Acharya brings to his poetry the insight of someone who has inhabited multiple worlds: the traditional Nepali village, the sphere of international development, and the modern West. The result is poetry that is intimate, political, philosophical, and deeply humane.
The poet’s note offers a compelling entry into the collection. Acharya recalls scratching poems into soil and wooden boards before notebooks were available, grounding the reader in the material realities of rural Nepal. His reflections on language are especially striking: Nepali, he suggests, feels “grounded,” while English feels “abstract.” This tension shapes the emotional landscape of the book, where poems move between rootedness and displacement, tradition and globalization, village memory and urban estrangement.
One of the collection’s major strengths is its ability to merge personal experience with social critique. Poems such as “Sex is Pure, Badi is Impure,” “Ganesh and the Rest of Us,” and “The City of 1008 Eyes” confront caste discrimination, marginalization, and social hypocrisy through sharp imagery and metaphor rather than direct moralizing. A prominent advocate who has consistently campaigned against caste-based discrimination in Nepal, Acharya allows activism to emerge organically through poetic form rather than didactic statement.
No limitation to beauty
The title itself is evocative, symbolizing people uprooted from land, identity, and belonging in an increasingly globalized world. The “farmers of blue smoke” become emblems of migrant workers, diaspora communities, and those navigating unstable modern lives. Through poems like “Letters are Like Buffaloes,” “The Life, Death and Reincarnation of the Jamun Tree,” and “The Kerosene Stove,” Acharya preserves the textures of rural life while reflecting on change, loss, and continuity.
The collection also stands out for its intellectual and thematic range. Acharya moves fluidly between folklore, spirituality, capitalism, migration, environmental change, and technological alienation. Yet even at its most political, the poetry remains emotionally accessible and firmly rooted in lived experience. He neither romanticizes rural life nor rejects modernity outright; instead, he explores the contradictions of both with honesty and nuance.
Stylistically, the poems rely on clarity, imagery, and the cadence of oral storytelling. The language is simple yet layered with symbolic resonance, making the collection accessible without sacrificing depth.
As litterateur Dr. Sanjeev Upreti rightly observes, Acharya “explores the landscapes of Nepal—its villages, forests, rivers, and restless cities—through poetry that is both intimate and questioning.” He further notes that the poems draw deeply from memory, myth, labor, and everyday life, revealing “the deep connections between people, nature, and power,” while moving fluidly between tradition, hierarchy, and globalization in a voice that is both reflective and lyrical. Ultimately, Farmers of Blue Smoke bridges worlds too often kept apart: rural and urban, local and global, poetry and activism. Through vivid imagery and ethical clarity, Acharya reminds readers that poetry can serve as both witness and transformation. The collection stands as a significant contribution to contemporary Nepali and South Asian literature in English.
Genre: Poetry
Title: Farmers of Blue Smoke
Author: Homraj Acharya
Publisher: Bala Publication Pvt. Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal
