Requiem for Eva RanaweeraRequiem for Eva Ranaweera

"The funeral of a man who has lived
a worthy life is not just a chore,
not a nuisance, but a great, even if sad,
occasion and on this occasion there must
be special, appropriate honours paid." - Chingiz Aitmatov

The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
It is as if our last thoughts, our words wavered and were suspended, stopping in
midair like your life.
How then connect those tenuous threads that have snapped?

I now clutch the last strands of your utterance
As my lifeline yet we can never resume
Our conversations, talk about our lives, our relationships,
Our writing, our friendship, vowing its constancy.

Through the years you told me so much about yourself,
Shared our deepest, inner most secrets
Cracking open the nutshell to reveal the kernel
that nutflesh both sweet and bitter to the tongue.

There was nothing you hid from me
We were both free spirits,
lived life according to our own terms,
we knew what mattered most to our lives,
withstood destructive thoughts and actions
inflicted on us by the populace

Our love was deep, we shared both joy and sorrow,
our writings, our philosophies and more than anything
else we shared that trust in which there was no contumely, no betrayal.
You spoke to me a week ago
"I want a poem from you for Voice of Women"
"Deadlines?" I asked.
"As early as you can," her voice smiled back at me

Now as I recall, there was no deadline
For the completion of your life but thoughts
remain in my mind and imagination where you
will always live.

We spoke of the female aspects of Nature,
that was your suggested theme

I mused on Kore, the Virgin Mother of ancient myths,
her harvest instrument the moon sickle.

Kore, abducted by Plutonius Zeus
Did he think that by that violation he could take
over the powers of the goddess, Kore who alone
could provide nourishment for all living creatures?

Kore was resurrected,
she, the goddess who bears fruit

I have now met your deadline but you are no longer
here to read what I have prepared for you
but in this poem I will carry its all important message

You scattered the seed of thought proliferating
in my mind where it began to root and sprout,
to become, your words and mine the eternal nourishment,
ideas fecund with creativity, sharing that empathy
with growing things to bloom and flourish to safeguard
our fragile world, protect it from the depredations
of our souless destroyers Jean Arasanayagam

Here in this narrative poem, the poet reflects on the unfettered friendship that she had with a departed literatus. It is the intimate movements that linger in the mind for ever and floods when someone departs from life. The poem is marked for its sincerity of thoughts and candid expressions - Indeewara Thilakarathne

Advice to a daughter on Valentine's Day

As far as I'm aware,
This is your first Valentine's Day celebration!
I hope it is not the last
Unlike the light at the end of a tunnel.
I heard you asking Amma
Whether she had received red roses
On Valentine's Day!

I must put the record straight!
We have never exchanged red roses
On Valentine's Day
As that day never existed in our lives!

We offered flowers to the Buddha
And chanted 'Gatha' reflecting on
The ephemeral nature of life
Even on our birthdays!

Your lover wouldn't know our culture
I hope your love will not fade away
And hope it will grow
Like a blue gum-tree in Perth.

As every fifth marriage in this country
Ends in separation
Perhaps young lovers here
Should plant more trees
Instead of exchanging flowers on Valentine's Day! - Sunil Govinnage

This evocative poem is structured around a father's stream of consciousness about "new" cultural mores that he has to get used to, in his domiciled country based on a question from his daughter on a Valentine's Day. A unique feature of the poem is the poet's thought and point of view about duel cultural codes that he encounters and the conflicting practices he followed in his native country, Sri Lanka. - Indeewara