Poetry

Something eternal

Shared heart
And soul
Though bodily remote
Paired with
Deep sense
Of eternal force
Dared to feel
So close
Split soul
Runs through the minds
Of both
Without pause

- Ramu Ranasinghe

Salute to a soldier

When the Sinhala warrior brave,
Bleeding from the terrorist blast,
Rose with dignity not to the grave,
To fight the battle to the last.

Hark! beneath the spreading tree,
Sat the soldier wound to heal,
Fight to the last till my country's free,
He groaned like a lion to the battle field.

Held his gun straight as the pain vanished,
Brave soldier followed the Gemunu style,
March to the front till the terrorist banished,
To make no split in our beautiful isle.

Do conquer hatred, greed and pain,
Vanquish all woe and all anguish past,
Thus strive with might and main,
To reach the peak of peace at last!

- Letitia Hewavisenti

On the wings of the butterfly

Wind has risen
perfumed by the saltspray
of the curling waves.
Drifting clouds as white as bed-sheets
Cosy to sleep on
Earth's variety that excites
the senses and exalts the soul
Steaming under the sun
Warm and wet
Well manicured paddy fields
gardens, orchards, forests, too,
draping the earth
with green exuberance.
Winding lanes squeezed between
thick hedges
Showers of flowers from trees
Spread out in the sunlight
Scent all over us
As the saying goes:-
"Anyone with a sense of beauty
will let some trees grow"
The river moves on,
in silent majesty
The quietness sweet
Joy ecstasy
Frog's chant flows over the water into the air
Prince in disguise
"Once upon a time" moon-light story
Many shades of green
roll away below us
Terminating the moments of cool breeze
Soft sights
Free from disturbance landscape
as aesthetic and historic,
as a castle or cathedral,
fades away
People striving passionately
to overturn war into peace
"They are just nobody
handle them anyhow"
Hissing hoarse voices
Wrapped in a cloak of mystery
High hard
Dramatize greed and aggression
hostile to peace.
Screaming voices
louder than all and lonely
dodging bombs and bullets
Something great-good hope reached not
The Venus symbols that
twine through and make up
the country's lore
Veiled, dazed
Soaked red
Fume in embers of flame
Nature and man
The correspondence opened up
by poet William Wordsworth
Come spring clad with verdure
Priceless inspiration
for a tiny woman who collects
fire-wood to cook rice and curry
The resulting fortification
a perfect sense of defence
against the visible
Code of living, battle and death
Fertility and life
Miracle of an egg
Life designed
Like the wings of the butterfly.

- Devi Singam

True love

I do not see you often with my eyes,
But often you are with me in my heart.
We rarely see each other, but there are deeper ties
That keep us close though we are miles away.
Love doesn't depend on sights and sounds,
But on the mysteries of need and grace.
You're with me and I am with you always,
unrestrained by bounds,
No love should suffer like this
That's my wish for you

- Devika Ekanayake

Saints and Sinners

Taunted
By the village astrologer's
prophecy of doom
Frantically
I search for a respite
Filling my aching heart
To the brim
With elixir of red wine
Who with nubile damsel's charm
Entices me to sway
To the wild drum-beat
And as it reaches its crescendo
I eagerly perform an ancient ritual
Of cleansing my soul
Yielding to the tempting vibrations
Of heart-throbbing music
Propagating triumphantly
The omnipotent message
Of universal love
As a prelude to
Hitherto tabooed enactment of free-love
And I make a quick exit
Escaping from looming fears
Of a ferocious phantom
Lurking in the dark
Awaiting its turn to crumble
My treasured possessions of
Fragile moral barricade
With seasoned hunters
Superb precision
Aided admirably
By newly accrued sleek weapon
Of ultra-modern civilization.

- Ranjan Amarasinghe

Memory

It's a power of
Intelligence,
A power of
Health,
A power of swift
Success.

At a time it brings me
happiness with the
Victorious and vivid memories,
But at the same time,
it becomes capable of
moistering my cheeks
with tears trickling down.

At times I feel,
if memory dies,
how happy I would be !
But if it takes place,
I would no more
be a worthy creature
to this sphere.

- D.G.T.S. Gamage

Interpreting dreams

Interpreting dreams is an intricate
occupation, as a weaver
weaves each strand on loom into a
tapestry and studies its
significance in the glow of
a brass golo lamp,
filled with moth wings from
yesteryear.

Yesterday I dretam of a large
ocean, of blue sea water
which was interpreted as a site
of peace and tranquillity.
A few weeks ago, I dreamt
of you in an orange boiler suit,
in an open prison square.
in a unknown prison.

I was lonely sparrow
seeking a future, to save the
alienated and the desolate
ones, who searched for reconciliation
and freedom from an assigned
pre-ordained role, which you
did not perceive, as you fought
in the desert war, unaware of
your destiny.

In the past, I felt swift
breezes assuage my consciousness,
as a glass door shattered
into smithereens,
and I heard gun shots fill the
inner caves of those rugged
mountains where silence filled
the entire desert and you were
alone,
And now I interpret new dreams
to save you from your present
strife,
a destiny which you had not
envisaged as you sat alone,
a marine, in the desert air,
surviving your own dilemmas,
for the present and the
future

- Parvathi Solomons Arasanayagam

Keep up confidence....

Searched but lost in vain-expectation
Dreamed but blurred in deformation
Faught but defeated all invasions
Exhausted but ended all in emotions

Life is but a mirage in disguise
Hope is eternal but vanishes in surprise
Blessing is pleasant but bury in demise
Reality is, but an illusion when visualise

Weep not comrades, for everything impermanent
Suffer not sorrow for, it is inclement
Crave not wealth much for you become insolvent
Conceit not, for you fall prey to indictment

Acquire health instead, it is the greatest profit
Content with what you have, it is the greatest wealth
Keep up confidence in you, it is the best relative
Fear not death, it brings you permanent solace.

- Sudath Jayatissa Hewamadduma

Old instincts in the space age

Old simians have given way to young
Monkeys exercising their arboreal motions
In bushy trees, causing mayhem upside down hung.
But there's nothing new in their motions
Like homo sapiens massacring

In Bagdad, like ancient tribes marauding
Who with sword and cudgel smote
One another before the Bible was wrote.
Bush says Ahmadinejed is evil.
Ahmadinejed says Bush is evil.
Niels Bohr said that at a fundamental level
Opposites are both true and equal.

- Patrick Jayasuriya

The Last Straw

The open-handed philanthropist
sent an open letter
and it was printed in a newspaper.
I wish to donate all my wealth and the property
to distribute for the poorest.'
It's an opaque whether the old age man is
going to die
or he leaves everything and goes to
a forest monastery?
His last will said; belongings are always a burden
and it's too heavy a soul to carry along this
mysterious journey.

- Nimal Dunuhinga