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POETRY
The Flute Player's Melody
On sun-bronzed evenings
By the rippling waters of a river
The flute player
Lifts the flute to his lips
And pours out a melody;
Stirring into each other,
A mellow amalgam of moods and scenes
The soft tread of an incomparable teacher
heard amidst
The beginning of a legacy,
Changes and adaptation
The awakening of a nation,
Feelings and appreciation
Of a whole era.
You are the flute-player's melody
That sweetens the breeze;
The mellow amalgam
Of past, present and future.
(Dedicated to D N N Seneviratne)
Chanakya, Kasun and Nillasi Liyanage
Light
Dawn light brings radiance and hope,
But not for the helpless ones born blind.
They feel the soothing Morning Sun,
and the blazing heat of the noon.
Sunset's flaming hues of light are invisible to them.
Yet they can hear sounds both musical & harsh.
If they are lucky they can touch
their children & dogs and carers gentle and kind.
We see the ever changing Light of Earth & Sea & Sky....
With all five senses functioning,
Do we really see the light of understanding
Peaceful Co-existence?
Jegatheeswari Nagendran
The Drought
The earth is parched with cracks everywhere,
A slight breeze sends the dusty soil making the air impure,
Streams, wells, rivers are gradually evaporating;
The climate is humid and the sweltering heat is unbearable,
Withering leaves and boughs are strewn everywhere,
Water the giveth of life is so scarce that I could
see women line up in turns to collect it at the common tap,
Bountiful harvests cannot be reaped laments the cultivators,
The drought has wreaked havoc.
Yasmin Jaldin
First of October
I heard there is an athletic meet
Early morning I was in the ground
They invited veterans' athletics events
When I was chatting with the lady
Calling 'Yamuna' in the next seat
She encouraged me to participate to the opportunity
Then I was a candidate
In the event, fortunately
I got the first place among the others through cheering
My mother has blessed me from her world
My name was announced, by speaker for awarding
With the salutation, a gold medal was for me
'Yamuna' congratulated me warmly
Although I am an elder, I was very happy
Like a small child
It was the International Day of Older Persons
As well as the International Day of Children also.
Pushpa Kalubowila
Ode to John Keats
In silence I weep, in sleep I dream,
John Keats, you, the doyen of odes.
Repent I with the pupils of mine,
For the delay I made, to celebrate your lines.
Vision you gave, in the odes you wrote
Eternally lies in the minds of the great,
The note of sadness, through the lines you sound
Perceptive life with the vividness of joy,
Permanence of art ideally you made
Glamour of romance reigns in the tone
You, the sensuous Keats, upheld the eternal beauty
"Beauty is truth, truth is beauty"
Yet mutability prevails.
Dryad of the trees overpowered your pain
Made you drink to the skinful we say
Dreaded disease, embalmed your soul
Reverberate in my veins - the urn, the song and keats
As long as sensitivity reigns,
Sensibility gives the strength to live,
Odes of yours stimulate the neurons
Pushes the world to infinite ends.
Piyadasa Rillagoda |
