Hermitage

My discarded life
Laid in the air
Sorrow stricken; weather beaten

Your calm voice
Touched it
As a sermon of a hermit

It was like a song
Came from the sky
As a silent humming to the green valley

My soul seek refuge
In your kindness
May it be forever my hermitage!

Sriya Kumarasinghe

Bird's melody, a remedy

The music of that bird
To dispel all melancholic mood -
Again and again I heard
For my thought it was food.

As if from a maestro's flute
Sufficient was its melody
Fit enough all occasions to suit
And to cure many a malady

Singing in full-throated glee
Which made my burdens light
The entertainer in the tree
Filled my heart with delight.

The longer and more I heard
I wished I were a bird.

N. M. L. M. Haleel

Romance

The moon illuminated the darkness
And it brought the coolness
My dear darling princess
You can bring me the happiness

I hear your melodious voice
And see the stars on your eyes
The way you walk is very nice
You are the spring in my life

Captain Tharindu Weerasinghe

A Yellow Butterfly

I saw a yellow butterfly this morning
Near the lecture hall.
It had a black dot on its wings
That looked so pretty when the sunlight
Was shining on them.
It stayed there all day long and rested
For a long time.
May be it came from a far away place
And gave a rest to its beautiful wings.
Or may be it got lost on its way.......

Each time I saw that butterfly
I just remembered you.
You were too busy to talk to me
And not even one single word for me.
You were rushing with life
I tried to reach you but you were far ahead.
I pray that you would not get lost in life
Just like the butterfly.
And that you would rest for a while
To give your mystic soul to enjoy life.
When you are in a moment like that
Just remember me,
I will come and whisper a fair story
To you and erase all your pain away.........

Bertholameuze Nisansala Dharmasena

Imanust

'Imanust' are you a prophet from "Bible" or,
A character swirled out of "Jathaka Stories?"
Can you be a maxim from 'Islam' doctrine?
Or a role-model of: 'Maha Bharatha.'

A rest, for a moment while your caravan,
Journeyed on earth, as a horrible monster,
You unveiled hell and played havoc on earth,
Crushing human lives, to a pulp.

Unity compassion, to be selfless is a must,
For death knocks like the wolf, not in selection,
Of race, religion, cast, creed, status or wealth,
Ignoring too willingly by nature as immaterial.

If I introduce you correctly and accurately,
'Imanust' you become another, no doubt,
I'm forced to grasp the lesson you taught,
Man must unite in everything everyway.

'Imanust' you become, 'Tsunami' if,
I introduced correctly. You were tragedy,
Catestrophy, destruction and despondency,
Sprang out of sea-bed unleashing terror.

You were not only a prophet, but a great teacher,
Who forced us to be your obedient disciples,

You used no science, no technology, but nature,
Aiming to teach us all a too bitter lesson.

Radha Ranjani Jayewardene

The Golden Apple

The huntsman, in a hunting expedition
Was caught in a thrall of excitement
To find amid the verdued woodland,
A golden apple of value incalculable.

He reckoned, in an impulse so quick
That the king alone
Had the prerogative to possess
Treasure so unique.
So he ceremoniously presented to the king
The apple of burnished gold,
Who accepted it with pleasure astounding.

The king, contemplating upon a design,
To abate the obduracy of his queen,
Unceremoniously presented it to her
In vain attempt at positive results.

The queen, in a franatic search,
For an appropriate token
To confirm her affection
Large in magnitude,
To the prime minister of the king,
Presented it to him in a gesture of love.

Longing for a gift of value
To win the heart
Of the comely lass he adored,
Whose slim figure voluptuous,
Seemingly moulded of
Solidified ductile moon beams,
Whose rhythmic swaying of the hip
Sent lascivious waves of tremor
Through the fabric of his nerves
The prime minister presented the apple of gold
To Maya, the slave girl of the queen.

Maya, the enchantress, had no gift of value
To be presented to the personage,
Who salaciously, fondled her,
Caressed her,
Embraced her,
Kissed her,
And uttered sweet nothing
To her ears in stealth.
So at a moment opportune,
She, furtively, before his feet slumped,
And in an attitude of genuflection
Offered the golden apple
To the king of the realm.

H. Kamal Premadasa

Kandy Lake

The lake, after twilight, was still.
The boats were still.
The lake was shut within itself.
Underneath the opaque surface of still water,
Level, the lake lay more than the eye could guage, deeper
Where fishes swished in quick trajectories,
In their dark territories,
So active in that most private shelf
After a daytime of surface fill.
Only the surface, at night, was still.

Patrick Jayasuriya

Floods

The dykes are crumbling
the waterways are surging with
swirling waters, and the
windmills stare like lonely sentinels
in a luring horizon,

Those acres of tulips
are decaying in the moist waters
people swim to a shaky ground
and the world reels with natures
own reaction to this punctured
sky, no longer protective
in its canopied cloud cover.

People, swim in these turbulent
times, groping at stumps of trees
to gain safety, but the waters
rise and the land can no longer
be reclaimed and the guns
are heard across those pockets
of hills in another land,
where two groups seek annihilation
as a solution.

Women, crouch in silent niches
silent tears from weary eyes
cradling silent children
traumatised in this open violence
where shells fly across the valley,
snow cannot cover those
silent bodies, and the world remains
silent while nature, subverts
its predictable seasons,
and people ask where did we go wrong?

Parvathi Solomons Arasanayagam

******

Send in your poems to:

Daily News Poetry
No.35,D.R.Wijewardene Mawatha,
Colombo - 10.
E-mail: [email protected]

Dear Poets,

The following poets whose poems were published in the Daily News are requested to contact the Daily News Editorial immediately on 2 429 213 or 2 429 219.

J.P. Pathirana, Yasmin Jaldin, Randev Perera, L.E.C. Salgado, J.I. Rosairo, P.L.N. de Silva, Sunila Nanayakkara, Rienzie I. Perera, George Eddie, Menaca Calyaneratne, Narendra Kalinga, Nimal Pryasiri Dunu, Tharindu Weerasinghe, A. Ratnayake, G.H.A. Suraweera, Bertholameuze Nisansala Dharmasena, Indu Gamage, Dineli Jayasekera, Dilrukshi Perera, A. Jayalath Basnagoda, Sheila Gunasekera, N.M.L.M. Haleel, Devi Singam, B. Mohanlal de Mel, Dr. Tilak S. Fernando, Arul, Verna L. de Silva, Sr. Mary Bernard R.G.S., Sudath Jayatissa Hewamadduma, M. D. S. Maithripala, A.H. Paranawithana, T.M.S. Nanayakkara, D.J., Anjalie Chandima Silva, Kusum Rajapakse, Arjuna Athapathu, Nimal Sedera, N. Muthukumar, Saara Panchamee Hewavissenti, Arjuna, Antonette de Cruze, Palitha Solmans, Jayashantha Jayawardhana, V. Iresh Piyatilleke, Pramod Beri, Vishaka Senadhira, Dayal Nalaka Pathirana, Sylvia Hettiarachchi, Sunil Ranasinghe, Dayaseeli Senaratne, Nimal Dunuhinga, Victor Peries, B. Roken Heart, Caryl Nugara, Saroja Siriwardene, Arefa Teshin, Manushi Atapattu, A. Bogoda, Deen, Lt. Col. P.A.D. Albert, S. Raymond Silva, A.C. Sunil Ranaweera, M.Y.M. Meeadh, Sunanda Mahawela, Ranjan Amarasinghe, Rinoza, Jeannette Cabraal, N. L. Jayawardena, H. Shelton A.T. Peiris, Nazly Cassim, K.H.S. Perera, H. Kamal Premadasa, Ramu Ranasinghe, Lakshani Kodituwakku, Ivan Kiriella and Rohan Jayawardana.