By Charudutta Panigrahi

Cities are built not just with concrete and steel, but with memory, metaphor, and meaning. Bhubaneswar—Odisha’s capital, its cultural crucible—is no exception. As the city expands in ambition and architecture, the question arises: can language, especially poetic language, make Bhubaneswar better? Can it deepen our connection to place, inspire civic pride, and catalyze the creative economy?

Bhubaneswar in Verse: A City Remembered, Imagined, and Longed For

Poets have long been the cartographers of emotion and place. In Odisha, the city of Bhubaneswar has found its way into the lines of several eminent voices:

Ramakanta Rath, once wrote of Bhubaneswar as a place where “the silence of stone speaks louder than the noise of men.” His meditative verses often evoke the city’s ancient temples and their quiet dignity amid urban bustle. Sitakant Mahapatra, in his lyrical reflections, described Bhubaneswar as “a city where gods walk in the shadow of flyovers,” capturing the tension between heritage and modernity. Ratnamala Swain, whose recent collection Claiming the Sky writes with architectural precision and emotional depth. Her poems, though not always explicitly about the city, carry the pulse of its evolving skyline and the quiet yearning of its people.

Akshaya Mohanty’s songs and satirical compositions often captured the pulse of Bhubaneswar’s changing landscape. His ରଜା ଝିଅ ସାଙ୍ଗେ କରିଥିଲି ଭାବ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର ହାଟରେ is immortal. Nibedita Mohanty, a newer voice in Odia poetry, writes about Bhubaneswar’s monsoon streets and temple courtyards evoking a tactile intimacy with the city. I have read new age poets like Meghna Dash, Tanisha Kar, Disha Mohanty, Koushik Agarwalla and they are very impressive and thoughtful, about their ‘feelings’, partnering with the city. Sudeep Jena     (lalu) has composed Nirmal Nayak’s lyrics which sings about the city’s night life in a private space with ତୁମେ ଥରେ ବେଗି ସୋଇ ଗଲେ , ସହର ର ମଧୁଶାଳା ଖୋଲେ…

These verses do more than describe—they dignify. They transform Bhubaneswar from a place on a map to a living, breathing entity with soul and syntax. These poets are part of a growing community of voices from Bhubaneswar, many of whom have been featured in local festivals and platforms.

The Urban Poetic Tradition: From Baudelaire to Bhubaneswar

Globally, poets like Baudelaire, Ginsberg, and Erika Meitner have turned their gaze to cities—not just as backdrops, but as protagonists. Meitner’s lines about the F train’s headlights blooming into a station evoke the intimacy of urban life, the small moments that shape our days. Similarly, Bhubaneswar’s own poetic potential lies in its everyday: the temple bells at dawn, the rush of students on Janpath, the scent of mahua in the air.

Language can help us notice what we overlook. It can make the mundane magical. And in doing so, it can make us better citizens—more attentive, more empathetic, more rooted.
Sometime back this writer had written,” 

Neons blink like half-remembered dreams on Janpath’s skin,

Bhubaneswar sighs into sleep—unsure if it’s mourning or waiting to begin.

Poetry as Infrastructure for the Orange Economy

Odisha’s creative economy—its orange economy—is waiting to be seeded. Bhubaneswar, with its universities, art schools, and tech hubs, is ripe for a cultural renaissance. But infrastructure alone won’t do it. We need language—better signage, better storytelling, better poetry.

Imagine:
•    Infusing poetry into civic spaces: Poems on the Pathways: verses etched into sidewalks, metro stations/as and when they come, and parks, much like London’s “Poems on the Underground.”
•    Youth Poetry Slams: hosted in colleges and cafés, where young voices shape the city’s emotional topography.
•    Curated Anthologies: featuring Bhubaneswar-centric poetry by emerging and established Odia poets, distributed in schools and libraries.
•    Civic Poetry Workshops: where peer leaders and social champions write about their neighborhoods, turning local pride into lyrical activism.
•    Create a “Women Write Bhubaneswar” archive: Curate works by female poets and writers that reflect the city’s emotional and cultural evolution.

A Call to Action: Let Bhubaneswar Speak in Verse

To make Bhubaneswar better, we must make it more linguistic. Let the city speak not just in bylaws and blueprints, but in ballads and metaphors. Let its youth be the flâneurs of Janpath, the chroniclers of Chandrasekharpur, the dreamers of Dumduma.

Let us infuse the city with better language—language that dignifies, that dreams, that dares. Let Bhubaneswar become the poetic capital of India’s eastern creative economy. Let the orange economy begin not with policy, but with poetry.
Because when a city finds its language, it begets its voice, and finds its soul. And Bhubaneswar, ancient and aspiring, deserves nothing less.

The writer is a noted poet.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of Sambad English.