Remembering Damayanthi

A decade has glided by but memories stay
Strong and vibrant never fading away
I remember our times together you and I
Talking rationalising
The happenings of each day.
Pulsating waterfalls and terraced rice fields
The sweet and pungent smell of treacle and curd
Soft silken flowers that nod gently in the breeze
Golden trumpets you called them
Stir up memories constantly.
You were like a loose kite in the wind
Searching observing endlessly
I know your voice your face, your sparkling eyes
That communicate the sadness and yearnings
Only you and I understood.
Now that you are gone
Liberated from pain
You are free my friend
And here I am till we meet again.

Charmaine

Adult world

I remember, yes I recall immensely,
The days we spent together joyously
Studying, analysing, arguing even relaxing,
A happy, easy life for sure we're leading.

As friendly colleagues of the institute
Work load was shared enjoyed no hum.
We were together solid let anything go or come
Boquet's came way even brick bats, minute.

Time the restless runner ticked on and on,
Our shared loving moments too were gone.
We grew up, more experienced, learned,
Bitterness, frustration stress we earned.

It's not 'come September', but spent youth;
Which robbed innoncense, softness forcing an uncouth
Deluge. Its selfishness, hatred, our new sentries,
Sighing I interpolate them searching for old memories.

Radha Ranjani Jayawardena

To you

Evening has come with the darkness
Just to bloom Rekumari in black background
As it is the most beautiful scene,
To see me near the gate.
Like a long necked bird
She stays without hesitation
Wishpering not to face any danger
Her wishes always for me
My devoted Silmaniyo.
Escape from the office work
I hurry home to get fresh air
She stays like a blooming flower
As the full moon with laughter
Laughing like small bunch of bells
Winding like a creeper in my hand.
How can I let her down
As she cannot be a dearest mother
Who brings a son like me?

Sakunthala Malathi Munasinghe

The sentence that killed me

I tried and failed
And failed again
To stop the bleeding
From my wounded heart

My heart is wounded and bleeding, Beyond repair
Because of a sentence so serious
Which pierced my heart deeper
Like an arrow piecing an apple

Everyday I die little by little
As the sentence which hurt my heart
Makes my heart cry in pain
And bleed more and more in vain

The reason why I die every day
is because the sentence which damaged my heart
Came from my angel, who was in my heart
And never expected this to happen

Now because of this I hate this world
Hate myself and my angel too
And curse my angel who pierced my heart
Every time I remember the sentence that hurt

I tried and failed and failed again
To stop cursing my angel for the damage done
I failed because I am dead now
Heavens above only, can save my angel now

Now anyone can tell me anything
It will not bother me anymore
Because my heart has stopped bleeding
And I am dead to this world now

Emkay

The wave

"Halt! Halt. Who goes there?"
Sentry shouts at the shadow that moves with care.
A fisherman in a dark black coat,
Staggers to the beach to push his boat.

I cannot explain the sorrow
That has fallen on my breast
The monstrous wave haunts me to the marrow
And never will that ever let me rest.

The boatman laments with an anguish voice
pushes to sea but blind to the rocks beyond the wave.
He sees a vision the fate of his sons
Dragged away to sea with no hand to save.

At last, the waves devoured
The boat and the boatman's cry
Boat with boatman already gone
Ghosts of the unburied will they ever mourn.

It's silence again
Which is louder than the pain
Of that poor man
who had gone insane.

A. V. Abeynaike

Robbed birthright

Sleepy eyed, saddening faces
Little lads and lasses,
Wrenched out of beds,
Before the Sun rises,
Pushed into a van
To go to school
Is a morning torture
Lashed upon them.

Lumbering to school,
With a bulging satchel.
Is the violence unlashed,
Under the guise of schooling,
Planned by the bureaucratic,
Planning elite.

Note-taking, rote learning.
The order of the day,
The bed-time stories,
The thing of the past,
Home work?
Then to dinner and to bed!
What wrong have the children done?
To earn this legacy of violence!

Richard Basnayake

Ramadhan fast

The Hallowed month-
That revives one's faith and 'Taqwa'
Has visited us again-
The Glorious Quran, a guide, a gift,
A revelation to mankind
In Ramadhan did descend
What does Ramadhan proclaim?
Observe the Fast and invoke Allah,
For self-control and spirituality;
To annihilate passion and evil deeds.
Thus severe fasting does generate
In you a very sublime soul,
Man who feeds his physical needs,
For ten and one long months,
Gets a chance to purify,
His heart, his life and wealth.
To elevate himself and contemplate.
Refraining from food, drink and avarice,
Is not what Allah expects - but,
Abstinence, from lying and evil deeds,
Allaah in His Mercy, decreed,
Not to fast at night,
A time for remembrance and rest.
For piety - it is a rigid test,
For man's endurance desires and drives,
To feel the destitute's pangs of hungers,
Awaken a consciousness of a lofty life.
The Quran reminds you thus:
"And that ye fast is better for you,
If you did know" (Q.2:184)"
The prophet said: "Fasting is a shield"
So forsake it, not, to please the Satan.
Weren't the great wars won
By the fasting faithfuls?
Lord! In His Mercy
Does not expect, a mother to be,
The ailing, and the very old
Those on long journeys too to fast.
It is a lesson in democracy,
A universal convenant,
Observed alike by rich and poor.
At end of Fourteen Hours, of rigorous fasting,
Comes the time to break the fast!
A time you realize the value of food.
Doesn't the water taste like nectar?
The thirst is gone the veins are soaked.
In all humility and gratitude,
You do thank the Merciful Lord!
Who made you too, fit to fast.

Nafeela Mukthar

'Cry for a world that's war-free'

Children of the World, Oh heed,
Your's is this wonderful Earth
Whether by Creation or Evolution
Matters nought for you to beam
The world is full of beauty and love
With ugliness and hatred thrown around
The human mind is large enough to drown
The Evil and Despair in search of Truth and Love
Cry for a world that's war free
Vie for Peace and Harmony
Say 'No' to Death and Destruction
But die for a cause supreme
Rely on your fair judgement
Make decisions bold and fair
Bend not to foul play and ill-gotten ways
But master knowledge - it pays
The Head and Heart form two unique Hs
That make or mar a man's fate
Use both well, courageously well
You'll be real Men and Women, Oh Kid

Neetha Sirimanne

Gratitude

Our eyes
Were locked
In a deep embrace
For a mere second
She and I.
And reached I
Her deepest recess
No word could
Express such depth.

Her kith and kin
Seldom made
The trip to her side
Not lack of love
But want of funds
Kept them away

Seated on a ward bed
And efforts so frail
She did take
The mug of tea
I offered
With willing hands
And gleaming eyes.

Jayanthi Kaththriarachchi

The honeysucker's dance

I watched the teeny-weeny honey sucker,
Perched on the guava tree; my wondering mind stopped for
A while,
Full of inquisitiveness.
The bird danced on its perch, up the bough,
Then down the bough,
And again up, it danced, twittering
The tail angled at a sixty degree,
The yellow green feathers tightened,
The stomach white and round:
A tiny beak of orange and pink,
As small as a long grain rice.
With a wondrous call, it chirped.
Intense, yet cryptic and eager,
The tiny eyes searching and roaming with the twitter
Of its song,
This honey sucker that stole my attention,
For a fleeting second,
Flew away, twittering bracingly,
Together with a teeny-weeny mate, similar,
Mingling with the morning sun rays
That filtered through the green guava leaves,
While a soft breeze blew pleasingly
Over the guava tree.

Diyamanthi Kohona Galpoththage