A poetry lover's dream come true
G L E A N I N G S by K. S. Sivakumaran
I was one of the invitees to participate at the launching of the
Daily News Poetry Anthology, by the Chairman of the Associated
Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. on October 11, 2007 at the Grand Old Galle
Face Hotel. The Chairman, the veteran journalist and television
presenter, Bandula Padmakumara, is a friend of mine for the past four
decades.
 I have met him first as a fellow member of the now non-existent Film
Critics and Journalists Association (FCJA). The energetic secretary of
the association was the late Neil I Perera. Prominent Sinhala filmmakers
and film critics were members of FCJA.
Members of the Board of Directors and a fairly large number of poets
and writers were present on the occasion. The chief guest was Prof.
Neluka de Silva of the University of Colombo. She is the Head of the
Department of English and is well known as an actress on the English
stage in Colombo.
She spoke clearly before the microphone on some aspects of Lankan
literary scene. The keynote speaker was the indomitable Professor
Emeritus of Medicine, Carlo Fonseka. Although he is a medicine man his
knowledge on many matters including the arts and letters is amazing. To
me he is one of the elegant writers of English prose.
Unfortunately I could not hear him speak clearly even though I was in
the front row of seats due to the failure of modulating his voice at the
controls handling the microphone at the GFH. He was inordinately slow
and took a long time to deliver his talk, although it was illuminating.
He cited some poems in the anthology. And two poets who were present
read their poems aloud for the audience. The Editor of the Daily News,
Promd de Silva made the welcome speech and his encouraging statements
were welcome. He too took a little more time than warranted.
A pocket size book titled The Colour of My Dream of 148 pages with
dreamlike front cover designed by Kumudhu Tharaka and inner cover by
Bandula Jinendrasinghe was launched.
This collection of poems was compiled by a young and vivacious woman,
Suharshi Perera, whom I first met at the News Division of the Si Lanka
Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) as a past pupil of Delhi University.
Suharshi now compiles the Poetry page among other work at the
Sub-Editors' desk.
The back cover of the book's blurb has this to say: "The anthology
consists of 100 poems by 84 emerging poets of Sri Lanka. With the
anthology the Daily News seeks to create a platform for budding local
poets to express their experiences, emotions and moments in life. The
Colour of My Dreams is the stepping stone to reward their limitless
creativity"
I always liked the American poet Robert Frost's line on poetry: A
Poem begins with Delight and ends in Wisdom. And so was the beginning of
the foreword in the book with lines from Frost: "Poetry is when an
emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
The rationale of selection of poems is explained in the Foreword:
"When selecting 100 poems out of over 500 published from January 2, 2007
to July 31, 2007, poems by Jean Arasanayagam, Carl Muller and Patrick
Jayasuriya were kept aside to give way to new blood, which is the
ultimate objective of the effort. We are glad to mention that these
eminent poets brightened up the Poetry Page with their poetic eloquence.
The Colour of My Dream comprises poems on a range of subjects to
offer the reader variety and food for thought. The support and guidance
provided in compiling this book is owed to many especially ANCL Chairman
Bandula Padmakumara and Artscope Editor R.S. Karunaratne. Former Editor
of the Daily News Bandula Jayasekera is also remembered for initiating
the Poetry Page."
The Foreword adds: "The unconditional cooperation offered by the two
judges Punyakante Wijenaike and K.S. Sivakumaran was also vital in
making the Dream of publishing an anthology a reality. The anthology
will be published annually."
If you want to know some thing more about the judges, this is what
the anthology includes: "Punyakante Wijenaike is a renowned novelist and
a short story writer. She has published over 10 novels and short story
collections. Some of her books are The Third Woman, The Waiting Earth,
Giraya, The Betel Vine, Yukthi and To Follow the Sun. Wijenaike has many
local and international awards for her literary works mainly woven
around the Sri Lanka's social-cultural setup.
Her novel The Waiting Earth was accepted by the University of
Sterling, Scotland as a Commonwealth Supplementary Reader and as a text
for the Advanced level by the University of Lanka. She is also a Gratien
Award winner."
"Her novel Giraya was adapted for television and also won the State
Literary Award for the novel Unbinding. She was the Chairperson of the
panel of judges for the Gratien Award in 1993 and also served on the
jury for the Eurasian region for the Cmmonwealt6h Writer's Prize in
1989. Wijenaike was conferred the Kala Suri title by the Government of
Sri Lanka in 1988."
I hope it wouldn't be unbecoming to quote what the note on this
columnist said: "K.S. Sivakumaran writes fiction and poetry in both
English and Thamil. He is also known as a literary columnist in both
languages.
He has published more than a score of books in his mother tongue
basically - critical studies. His two books in English include Aspects
of Culture in Sri Lanka (a conversation between him and Leroy Robinson)
and Thamil Writing in Sri Lanka."
"Two different entries written by him on Lankan Thamil Literature are
included in the Encyclopedia of 20th Century Word literature and the
Encyclopedia of Word Literature published in the U.S." He has worked for
*The Island* and the *Virakesar*i and was the founder editor of a Thamil
weekly *Navamani.* He has worked for the State Radio and TV and he is
one of the presenters in English over the Commercial Service of the SLBC."
The judges selected 50 poems each from more than 500 poems published
in the Poetry Page of the newspaper.
My choice was on the basis of freshness of thoughts and feelings,
innovative nature and social and personal relevance. I enjoyed most of
the poems and had to select only one poem of the many submitted by a
single aspiring poet.
Please read the book if you want to be inspired by writing poetry. At
random I picked up a poem from the anthology just to show you how the
new poets rite. This poem is by Caryl Nugara and is titled - An Evening
Rhapsody:
"Standing on the beach I hear
An endless rolling of the restless sea
While in sunset colours the vast sky
Is painted in shades of mauve, for me
Catamarans sail far away
Their flickering lanterns glow
In spite of wind and rain and danger
To earn a living, out to sea they go.
Oriental fragrance of incense pervades
And suspends on the leisurely dinging
Of temple bells calling us to pray
Its monotonous tones clanging
Then moon magic appears in velvet skies
Making everything gleam and shine and glitter
The Ocean washed by silvery beams
Mysterious loveliness, making my life richer.
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