Collateral Damage

"Among the most sinister phenomena in intellectual history is the avoidance of the concrete." -Elias Canetti

Twenty four people killed in the air strike:
Four with gaping wounds
On the stomach,
Their bloody entrails obscenely
Out of the skin pouch;
Three with shattered heads,
Like crushed watermelons,
Or trampled apples;
Faces with eyes gouged out, lips split,
And noses shattered;
Heads without bodies, bodies without heads;
Torsos without limbs, limbs without torsos;
Fingers knocked off the hands;
Shapeless pieces of burnt flesh;
Blood joining blood on a communal pool,
On the grassless soil;
Broken houses with charred walls,
And burnt rooftops;
A ruined landscape peopled with the dead,
The wounded and shattered souls.

Doesn`t such verbiage take up,
So much space, and consume so much air-time,
And even tire the truthful tongues,
Of the statesmen?
Will the dead ever object to a simple phrase,
Serving as a synopsis of such carnage,
Saving so many,
So much? - Jayashantha Jayawardhana,

The poet has ironically questioned the terminology of war. The terminologies whether they are collateral damages or indiscriminate bombing on civilain targets would matter little for those who were killed in the air raids. Through a recreation of a bloody scene, the poet has conveyed the message in elequent terms. He uses simple diction and the incidents are lined up in a logical manner

-Indeewara

Hearts

Living heart is stray cattle that seek no permission to invade any place
Young heart is its twin brother that needs no request to achieve its choice
Juvenile mind would be fortunate if it didn't become obstinate
I have no idea which part I should really illuminate or eliminate.
Heart is a flower bloomed in dawn dribbling dews of crystals
Wind will bring dust to mutilate or to distort the delicacy innate.
Could you cup your palms to prevent such sinister?

Adopt it as two lids that pouch the life of an oyster.
Heart moulds the Life that we mean the mind which we ignore
Living in the world is practicing ignorance coloured by desire
Habits and manners are costumes for the nude to attire
Tamed heart is not a living heart but the delicate azure

Wasantha Thilakarathna

The poem 'Hearts' describes different states of minds. The two extremes are amply articulated in the first and the last lines of the poem. The 'living heart' is a wild cattle that knows no bounds and rushes in anywhere whereas the 'tamed heart' is like the blue sky which is adorable but there is hardly any life. The poet skillfully compares 'heart' to a flower blossomed at the dawn and would gather dust which would distort its 'delicacy innate'. However, 'heart' should adapt to the tempest of life as 'the lids that pouch the life of an oyster'. As the poet rightly describes it is the 'heart' which makes most of the decisions in life rather than the mind

- Indeewara

To My Grandmother

To a loving grandmother
Now to us lost,
I cling to memories sweet,
With a wishful heart.

It is our immense privilege,
That our grandmother lived to a great age.
It's not something that happens often
One can see her great-grand children

I remember, whenever I was sick
By my side she would sit
Caressing my burning head or aching arm
Her loving hand a cooling balm

She would make her own oil
Medicinal herbs mixed to boil
She had her own ancient remedies
For all sorts of aches and maladies

She was the Queen of konda kevum
No one could make better oil cakes
Now I repent, I wish I had learnt
From her, the dying culinary art.

Oh! What a pleasing sight on a morning
She'd go fragrant flowers a picking
With the flame of the oil lamp flickering,
To Lord Buddha she'd give the offering.

To a hundred and five she did live
Her wisdom and counsel to us she did give
She had her trials and life's misgivings
But took her strength from Buddha's teachings.

Her wish was to fade away
Before she was unable to have her way
But life is strange in its own way
In her last few years, she was far away!

This is to the memory
Of my beloved achchi.
She'll live in my heart
To eternity!

- Sandhya Samarawira

Though not eloquentley, the poet expresses the heart-felt sorrow at the parting of the grandmother. What strikes here in the poem is its genuineness in expression and the memories associated with the grandmother. If not for the rather blunt expressions, the poem would have been a very effective rendering of a common place experience to a universal experience. The profound grief that otherwise would express is rather negated by the direct reporting like-tone the poet has adapted in expressing the heart out. The poem would have been more effective if the poet had been brief.

-Indeewara Thilakarathne