Lovely as a tree...

Spreading branches,
Tentacle -like,
Interlacing intertwining,
Forming a canopy,
Counteracting,
Harsh scorching effects,
Of the mid-day sun,
'neath whose cooling shadows,
man feels refreshed,
Shade provider,
For the homeless the wanderer,
Or rest for the traveller.

In whose deep recesses,
nesting birds,
Send out their mating calls,
or herald with a morning song,
the dawn of yet another day.

Along whose trunks,
Playful squirrels race,
With shriek-shrill cries,
pausing awhile,
To nibble at its bark,
or its luscious fruit,
making its deep dark hollows,
their abode.

Blooms bursting forth in gay abandon,
A riot of colour,
Splashing the countryside,
Carpeting the asphalt jingle,
Gladdening the heart of man.

Prayerful branches reaching heavenwards,
imploring rain,
for the parched and caked earth,
Heritage of future generations,
Utility and beauty so combined,
Yet hacked down 'ere its prime
through man's folly-
For trivial gain.

Jenette Cabraal

The poet with evocative lines describes the sheer beauty of a tree. In diverse ways, the tree would enhance the nature providing a canopy of shade, and fruits but man would cut it down before it reaches its maturity for 'trivial gain'. The poet uses very effective yet unambiguous language and describes the beauty and useful nature of the tree in eloquent terms - IT

EMPTINESS

O'Saraswathy,
You have given me learning.
That gracious gesture of yours
I valued on receiving.
In enthusiastic urge
I have claimed more which
you have been liberal in bestowing,
Untill I learnt that learning
Has become the propensity
Of getting to know
More and more about less and less.

Seers of yore have observed,
I have heard it been said,
That a surfeit of anything
is dis-advantageous, detrimental.
I feel the whelming weight
Of the burden of excessive learning.

O' Ganapathy,
You have bestowed upon me
Attendant wisdom
which I claimed more.
For such is the insatiate
Nature of mortals.
You have given more
With prognostic gesture.

I now find myself tangled
In a complex web of ramification.
Such is seemingly an aspect
Of profuse learning.
Creativity, ingenuity in the process
Have moved disgruntled,
In the direction
Of the realm of oblivion.

Saraswathy pray,
Withdraw the learning
You have bestowed.
Gananathy pray,
Rake the corns of wisdom
You have scattered
Upon the field of my brain.
Restore the emptiness.
The abounding emptiness.
 

H. Kamal Premadasa

Here the poet pleads for emptiness that is born out of utter disappointment of learning. Now the poet has had enough of hair-splitting arguments and confusing theorisations. With the passage of time, the age-old wisdom and the creativity have withered. Gradually the poet would go back to emptiness. He uses down -to-earth language to convey the idea. - Indeewara Thilakarathne.