A thought-provoking read
Title: The Heart of Silence
Poet: Elmo Fernando
Printer: Piyasara Printers
Pages: 36
Price: Rs.150/-
Man has nothing
to wear, but shame and
inhumanity.
He needs the sunlight's unhurried
loving
that pauses for laughter, or for breath
but takes no oath.
It's impossible, like the mist
so is his living.
These lines from the poem The Mist gives a clue to the versatility of
expression of poet Elmo Fernando in his book of poetry The Heart of
Silence. Man denuded of covering is contrasted with snowy apparelled
Dagoba which is still and soars the sublime mist. The book is an
interesting and a thought-provoking read. Fernando's mastery of play of
words and allusions are incontestable. His wield of Buddhist thought
cloaks his views in a glow of philosophical hue.
While I sat skulking
in your shadow you
left me to clutch the unknown
the impercipience of
eternity strained a
tear lost : your sighing
for me frowned at
time's battered skull,
are lines taken from the title poem. Fernando had taught as an
English Instructor at the English Language Teaching Unit of the Kelaniya
University and his poems are dedicated to the memory of his late wife
Hylda Fernando.
The Wait is another mesmerising poem which speaks about a fisherman's
widow and her urchins, keeping up the illusion of waiting for father.
Beverly Alcock of Kent University English Department, furnishing a poem
for the poet says, "let these poems be cloaked in crimson only, nor more
words".
- Jayanthi Liyanage |
