Across the darkness....

Across the darkness,
The path went on,
Continuing on and on,
Seeming........
As if it would never end,
With moon beams pouring,
And owls hooting,
Disturbed,
By the thunder and lightening,
Drenched,
By the rain,
She crossed the stile,
Still going along,
The path,
To wherever it would go,
However distant,
How much trouble,
Facing all,
She went,
Up to the end of the rainbow,
To get the pot of gold,
Which she had wanted.

 -Gimhani Upeksha Waduge

The poet evocatively narrates the path of life which is full of hurdles and lay through forests. The journey has no apparent end. A person who determines to get at 'the pot of gold', relentlessly peruses the path because he /she wanted to have it somehow. -Indeewara

Colombo

He who wears blue uniforms
Group of gentle riding boats
Moving Up and Down through channels
Sending notes to the surrounding people

Group of gentle cleaning channels
To improve the level of capacity to use to transport
Flash back memories to the Thames river in the poem of London
It is using to transport people or goods

Find a way to avoid smoke and oil of the boat engines
Find a way to avoid "Sili Sili bags" to throw to the channels
Ask them to change their behaviors and attitudes
To adopt new situations and ask them to travel with a smile

One day City of Colombo will become as London
But not as London to be as Colombo
Ask people to travel with a smile
With marking full of happy Rohini Ekanayake

In this poem, the poet draws parallels between the city of Colombo and city of London. The poet imagines that the canals in Colombo be used as those in London to ease the traffic jam in the city of Colombo. The poet pleads that people should change their attitudes toward the city and stop polluting it. The poet uses simple language and short lines. -Indeewara Thilakarathne

An aging poet's birthday wish

I don't like birthdays any more
Birthdays remind me of old age
And the shadows of death within me
Even the digital b'cards reaching via email
Can clog up my In-box like blocked arteries.

No more gifts or parties please!
Empty days and empty feelings float
Like a cloudless sky
Eternal shadows of suffering
Encircle me.

Will I have another one next year?

Sunil Govinnage

This short poem is a reflection of an ageing poet's monologue on birthdays that most of us consider as a reason for celebration. The poet obviously rejects material gifts and even digital birthday cards ! He has reached a stage in life that has given him insights into the emptiness of life and eternal shadows of suffering suggesting, deep influence from Buddhism. The very last line suggests the poet's awareness of the ephemeral nature of human life. -Indeewara

Buddha's Compassion

Oh! Virtuous disciple
Clad in pure white clothes
Offering alms and refreshment
In the serene shrine room
Redolent with pleasant fragrance
Of soft, resplendent flowers
Jostling in an array of trays

Oh! Devout disciple
Proffering elaborate platters of
Fruits and sweet meats
And beseeching with piety
In front of mighty God
In the adjoining 'Devala'
In the immaculate temple premises

In the name of my teachings
On this noble poya day
Look around to see
The baby crying endlessly
Sucking the emaciated breast
For mere survival
On the mother's warm lap
Who is sitting dishevelled
Donned thread bare rags
Under the sweltering sun
A scene that evokes the days
Of yore of my self -mortification
In which I was lying
In swoon almost dead.

By Sarath Sandacan

The poem is about a contrasting scenes unfolding with a premises of a sacred place on a full -moon day (Poya Day). Devoted disciple is at prayer before God in a shrine within the Buddhist temple. An impoverished baby sucks mother's breasts in hunger. The baby and the mother are in rags, representing poverty. Through the couple of incidents which occurred in a Buddhist temple, the poet tries to portray the harsh reality of life in a society where poverty and prosperity iare juxtaposed. The poet uses down-to-earth language. -Indeewara Thilakarathne

Dyer's Jallianwala

Dyer is modest.
In Ghaziabad,
Dyer holds a cellphone to his ear
and a college bound daughter disappears
in Chandni Chowk.
And Dyer delivers a talk on women rights.
Tons of wheat rot
in Dyer's godowns,
while Dyer holds condolence meetings
(sporting a crimson rose on his lapel)
for those who died of hunger.

Dyer visits the Harijan Busty,
and his teeth-marks appear
on the bodies of Phoolmati, Champakali.

While his foetus,
throbbing in Bhanumati's womb,
is stilled before it sees daylight.

Dyer's shadow looms
over mills and factories
over parliaments
and revolving chairs.

It looms
over the peasants' fate-trodden forehead.

As Dyer's gleaming car
cleaves through humanity
like Moses split the sea,
a bitter cocktail
of uneasy calm and fear permeates all around.

Dyer responds to the trembling salutations
from his car window
at every suburb and every town.

In daylight
Dyer vows integrity and confidentiality.
In darkness
Dyer uses the office as a shield to strip the confidence.
And yet his biography leaps out
from every corner and footpath
neatly hardbound into glossy tomes.

Dyer intrudes
the clauses and sub-clauses of law books
like persistent silver fish.
In nursery rhymes,
and constitutional lines
Dyer's interpretation reigns.
Sometimes Dyer becomes
a conspiring signature of the village chief
to eclipse the lot of downtrodden
Sometimes,
an enormous black hole
engulfing barrages, libraries, and
rehabilitation villages.

Among his henchmen Dyer distributes guns
and in the market paice
he frees pigeons for peace.
Snuffing out fires of hunger
with a firebrigade of blood
he awaits the media
before shedding a tear.

While Dyer-fed wordsmiths
flirt with words in paean,
he cuts a ribbon
to inaugurate a factory
and releases a book of poetry.

Dyer doesn't shoot nowadays
and yet many an unarmed Indian
is sacrificed to his appetite every day.
And Jallianwala grows
and becomes free-size everyday.

Rajendra Bhandari Gangtok
Translated by Pankaj Thapa

The Nepali poet describes fraternity of politicians who have been wordsmiths to achieve their ends. They are like parasites that feed on poverty and social issues. The 'Dyer's portrayal is universally applicable to every nation in the world though the form and degree of corruption may differ from nation to nation and dependson the kind of freedom that the masses enjoy. The poet’s narrative is self-explanatory and is noted for its irony and wit. -Indeewara