Loss turned out gain

Crossed shores to mine gems of wisdom
Under the red rising sun, away from kith and kin
Alas! Unexpected pit it was, you fell in
A shock undoubtedly, aback, you are taken

Away from those warm hearts and minds
You did feel the bashing loneliness
Cruelty of seclusion haunted around
I heard your plea for warmth and kindness

Pain, the stormy cloud, so ugly
Overcast your heart and mind wholesomely
Took you to a world of melancholy
Who would care me? You wondered, surly

You being blessed with Triple Gem
Never left alone,
Many a souls and faces came round
Soothed solaced and secured you day and night

Fact is you were away from the dearest
Nonetheless, the care was there at its best
Heal never failed you, slow and steady, albeit
To someone up above, I invoked merit

You lost only a bit from your physique
Seclusion loneliness and insecurity tossed
Frustration crept through to your abode
All that's gone now taking just the finger tip

Look at those who lost limbs and organs
Even the precious lives, for their nation
Amongst them you are a blessed, my son
To have all spared, but a finger tip

Many a new friends and relations
Courage, will-power and determination
Added on to your assets like bliss in disguise
Overwhelmed all debts, look, it's a profit!

Son, you lost nothing indispensable
You are still in best form to sail ashore!
See the mammoth strength grown in you now
Wow! Your pain has turned out to a hearty gain!

K.L.Jayatissa

The poem is about a minor accident a Sri Lankan student in Japan faced when he tried to help a friend. Compared with thousands who lost their lives and limbs losing a finger tip is minuscule and the accident,though unfortunate, may encourage the Sri Lankan student to make the best out of his stay in Japan.

Another Picasso ?

A brush stroked over the white canvas
Once twice and thrice..
Paint split all over the sheet..
He was staring at the board...
Light long paint brush gripped between his trunk..
A punch given by a sharp end of a hook brought him back..
Again another two or three strokes over the canvas..
The show was over...
Jumbo walked out of the scene..
"Wow ..What's an excellent piece of art"
"yes,It's brilliant.."
I heard one said to another...
I too looked at his painting,
Blue colour lines and curves were here and there on the white canvas..
I wondered to get a theme out of his priceless creation..
But I failed...
Might because frozen mind of mine couldn't understand the
Deep philosophical concept or the aesthetic pleasure
That wild animal reveals to the world....

Kumari Alokabandara

The poet narrates an incident where an elephant draws lines on a canvas and it has been hailed as a piece of excellent creation. However, the poet could not understand the painting.

Conundrum

Encompassed by impecunious circumstances
Caused by the fatal accident of her husband
Lying in the hospital bed struggling for life
She rushed to the rapacious money lender
To pawn her precious gold ornaments protected
With immense love like the apple in her eye
Only to see on her way back home
The old bosom friend once rescued her
Standing wearied under the scorching sun
In front of the dilapidated gate
Asking for financial aid
For an urgent operation to save his life.

Sarath Sandacan

In this narrative poem, the poet describes an incident where a woman had to make a difficult choice. Her husband was in hospital in a critical state and she had mortgaged her jewellery to pay the hospital bills.

When she arrived home, she found that her old friend was waiting in the scorching sun at the dilapidated gate, asking for money to save his life.

Midnight

Midnight
quite alone
reading a mystery
sleep in panic

Bertholamuze Nisansala Dharamasena

The poem is in Haiku style. The poem sums up a long story or a state of mind of the poem in a couple of lines. The narrator reads a mystery book in the midnight and has a troubled sleep.

An unsaid feeling

Oh what a sweet baby
My dear
He looks so angel
He will be genius
When he grows so big
What a fortune he will bring then for us

He must be given
Everything possible and comfortable
Every old item in our home
Must be thrown away
Remember your old mother
To the elder's home also
Said the gracious wife
To her loyal, kind husband.

Oh my dear
She brought me up as her own eyes
How can I be so cruel?
She is my own mother
My loving sweet mother
Said the kind loyal husband

It is none of my business dear
Roughly she said
I can't attend her
I have thousands of work
To do with our only child
Look at him, he is so sweet
How can I take him so higher
With the task of your old mother

It is your choice
The child or the mother
Said the gracious wife

This statement of the wife
Made the kind husband
Confused and helpless
He can't go
Both against, mother and wife
He was so sad.

The kind old mother who overheard her niece
Could see the face of her only son
Weak, pale and sad
So she decided
To leave her house she lived
For the sake of her only son
In thought
Never to see it again

Years passed, the child grew up
So nice and luxurious
Became a rich businessman
A money minded businessman
To earn money so hard
With no heart but brain
Under his mother's inspection

In time, he was proposed
To a rich beautiful woman
She was so gracious
Like her mother in low in her youth

Nine years passed
The loyal kind husband died
The mother in low grew old
Pale her skin and grey her hair
Even the make up couldn't bring her
Back to her previous beauty
She became so lonely

One day early in the morning
She heard her niece say
To her husband
Now I am pregnant
Next month we owe a child
A sweet angle child
Your mother is so old
We can't keep her anymore
The elder's home there in the town will attend her so well

The mother in law now feels
The great pain
Suffered by her mother in law
Long years ago.

W.P.N.C Hapangala.

Although the poem is about repetition of history, at another level, the poem narrates a social issue. In most of the households, the traditional place for grandparents has been denied and very often, grandparents are herded to 'Home for the elders'. In this poem, mother-in-law's fate is pathetic and in a way is retribution. The poet has used a down-to-earth language.

Once ago you were always...

Once ago you were always with me - you made me happy and joy
You know NZ is very lovely country - you loved your country than your life
You were truly nature lover I have ever seen...
You mitigate always my pain - you know the real meaning of "mother's love"
You told me life is not an empty dream...
But You'r like mirror...because one day
We heard the sound of howl and the sound of screech owls
You left us alone without a word - you died at age of twenty nine
When your death coming I'm only three years
I thought I can't live without you and I can never see you again mother
But you came to my dreams and told me - "I'll come back soon my son..."
I thought it is only dream...
Time move fast...though 17 years after your death...
One day I saw a Sri Lankan girl - who sitting near the mother's grave
When I saw her first time - I couldn't explain my feelings
"She told me life is not an empty dream..."
just I felt she is my beloved mother...but I know...
She is only 17 year girl and I'm 19 years boy...
How she became my mum?
I don't' know how can I accept it
But I believe one thing
It is.......

REINCARNATION

Zusie Taylor

The poem is about a remarkable encounter. The narrator, whose mother died at the age of twenty nine, when he was only three years old, says that he had met his mother in a seventeen year old Sri Lankan girl. The narrator firmly believes in the Buddhist concept of reincarnation. The poet relates the incident in a convincing manner in down-to-earth language.

Perseverance

As he stood at the foot of the mountain
With sheer determination
With a vivid picture of the past
Of life that seemed like a mask
That stood before him as a task

He took up the challenge
With clenching fists
Not as an android
But a human being

When all but was still
He stood their anchored
Face to face
With that grizzly image
That seemed the past
The howling wind
That pressed against his breast
For a moment he seemed in pain
But alas it was the time to ascend

like an autocrat
Every step he took
Moving to the rhythm
Of the howling wind below
That he never stopped to ignore

Every muscle that moved
Every bead of sweat
That trickled on to the grizzly's head
Maid that classic impression

Of man and mind

Determination and clairvoyance
Of slithering steps
That would make him
Sober of his fatigue
On reaching the climax
of the mountain top
heaving a sigh of relief
As he conquered best of all
Life one and all

So don't be discouraged If you fail
Take up the challenge
And face it well

Mrs.Dilrukshi De Silva

The poem is about facing challenges of life. They are diverse and sometimes come in battalions. What the poet says is that one should not be disheartened by the failures in life. For, they can be conquered like one who conquers a steep mountain. The poet uses a simple diction.

Platonic love

The time-worn past is
Like a dehydrated desert.
I saunter through it
After three and a half decades
And soul searching
Of my conscience.

In a hazy evening
At the campus boulevard
Her lithe eyes
Locked with mine.

She wore a slinky dress
In a pinky color.
The kiss curl went upward and
Kissed her cheek very slowly.

We played few word games,
Not a symposium of love
And not like a beggar"s invocation.
I never leered at her
With a greedy mind.

We wade the wet halcyon beach
While twisting our fingers.
We marched along the idyllic boulevards
Without the yen of lust.
We didn't simmer our feelings
For an instant solace of passion.
We heard the song of wood
Its like a sizzling dash for our lives.

Your impish eyes made me wild
But I unyoked my thoughts
Through unsullied concentration.

You stood as a tower behind me
Not like a vamp but like a nymph.

I waked up my redolent sense
In that zero hour
When we depart from the campus
You stood as 'seven virgins"

But now where are we?
I am about to be a
Sexagenarian
Sipping the life with my
Beloved wife and children.
You too would be same?
Sipping and dipping the life
With the utmost motherhood
And as a beloved wife,
Sometimes as a grandma.

But our platonic love
Would stands for aeons
Over this empty space.

Jayasiri Perera

In this long narrative poem, the poet describes his relationship with a girl during his university days. It was a platonic love. In the evening of life, the poet recollects where his ex-love could have been. She (the ex-love) would now have been married and with grown up children. Although the time has devoured everything including the youth of the poet and his ex-love, their platonic love will remain for ever.