Deep sleep

My life was pain, my life was sorrow...
I never wanted to see tomorrow......
I saw my life crumble before my eyes..
I just wanted to die...

When the light, became darkness....
When the world was full of silence...
I knew I had no reason to carry on...
my heart felt so empty...
I thought to myself," no this just cant be"
I hated myself because you are gone...

The ones I love, always end up leaving me...
Like I've been thrown in to the sea..
I'm drowning, in a sea of tears...
Realising my worst fears...

My heart is broken in to a million pieces..
Just like a shattering glass...
God knows, who's going to help me pick up the pieces...
I hope this will pass...

Some day I'll wake up from this deep sleep....
And I'll stop counting sheep,
Someday I'll fall asleep and dream for happy times...
Instead, of having nightmares, and waking up crying...

Randev Perera

The tale of a Tiger

A Chinese in a proverb concludes
(Which humorous truth includes)
That he who sits on a tiger
Must have his wits to ride her!
He who catches the tiger's tail
Will rarely live to tell that tail,
But he who speaks of the tiger's wail
When he smashed her by her tail,
Deserves, at least, a patient ear
And the prize for the 'liar of the year.'
Now, what of the tiger whose tail was caught,
What on earth did come to her thought?
She thought, it's said, in this particular case,
"Thank God! I needn't see his face!"

P.L.N. De Silva

William Shakespeare

Will there ever appear again,
In this enormous world
Linked to English Literature,
Like a colossus strutting with
Innovative ideas profoundly literate,
Armed to discourse on every human trait, having
Mastered the apt usage of words and phrases

So well preserved in his tomes, to gift
Humanity with ideas sparkling
As did this immortal bard, who
Kindled new thoughts and visions in humans' minds
Eternally open to welcome ideas sublime.
Such was this ingenious writer who in his deeply
Pensive moods harnessed his rare forensic skills
Endowed with wit, humour and rhyme to
Ably cast, in excellently plotted works, now
Researched and studied in academes of fame
Enriching his eternally noble name.

(To mark William Shakespeare's birth anniversary on April 23)

Andrew Scott

Tsunami - the sea replies

Today, this twenty-sixth of December
I am the origin of all decay.
It smoulders in my salted blood.

Today I will make each tree
A leathered skeleton,
The land reek with the excrement of terror,
For all this moulders
In my arching body.

Today, I will count
The waterlogged corpses,
The crumbling buildings,
The dead squirrels under the thatches....

Today, I will drink deep
Of the cup of mortality,
And when I recede,
I will leave, beach-peeled,
The death of day.

Carl Muller

Connected

Miles don't matter.
The one thing that matters
Is that we belong together.

My every awaken moment
Brings me to you,
And in my world of dreams
You are by my side.

The love of my life, the best part of me,
The life of my love, my precious one,
You've taught me to be connected
And I know not what distance is
For you are with me
And I am with you
In mind, soul and spirit

Menaca Calyaneratne

The lantern

That flickering flame of the lantern
Kicking off the nature's darkness
Sheds its wonderful ray on every surface
Not caring on where it rests

Limitless are the daring acts
When it meets the thickets
The trees tall and short and cottages, mansions
With their protective walls and luxury gates

It sees the birds and beasts
Big and small, some mild and meek
Others strong and fierce
Every strength and weakness could it fathom and solid conclusions did it arrive

Then it meets the human
That model of perfection, lean and tall
Seemingly innocent and amenable
Oh! What a creature, so handsome and affable

Quietly did the ray approach human
With ferment hope of a liberal glide
Only to receive a denial firm and solemn
Provoking the ray to wonder - has the human something to hide

Has he a touch of pride and arrogance
And a trace of fear and hate
Is he selfish, evasive and ambitious
And or a ruthless exponent of tit-for-tat

The lantern then concludes
The human is everything in one.

S.W. Jayasuriya

Rebuilding

When I had hopes and ambitions
I was stopped - no longer could proceed
On that one-track road

I stalled, felt the pangs of deprivation
and the shock of being a nonentity
in the eyes of those who scrutinised me

No longer was there that insatiable
thirst for knowledge, I was stock-piled
into nothingness, the world was new cold
and bare never could I lift my gaze
with bold assurance,
never could I feel' that exhilaration
which came from victory

I inhaled dust and fumes from vehicles
as I clambered onto moving buses and
counted the meagre crumpled notes of my wages
I adapted to my new surroundings
dressed in the affaire of a saree
learned to drape the folds gracefully,
tuck and pin unruly pleats
look consecrative, uniformed and anonymous
supped tea from chipped cups in the convent
tuck shop, gazed at saints in lithographs
humbled my once fleet-footed longings
and felt the touch of uniformity
shaping its aura as a halo to my survival
The students listened surprised
as I smiled, talked so "naturally"
without the inhibitions of my status
None knew of my defeat and exile here
I was diminished like an eroded mountain
walking through thronged passages with numbed
senses the desolate ways strewn with crumbling
sane, splinters of spent syllables

Parvathi Solomons Arasanayagam

Theatre

The world is a theatre in which
People have roles to play as rich
And poor-fortunate and unfortunate guys
As rules and the ruled-foolish and wise

Some are acting well to gain prosperity
In this life - others act feebly suffering adversity
Some are playing subordinate roles throughout
Others play predominant roles with authority without doubt.

M. Y. M. Meeadh

The difference

I am a poet
not different from you
I do a job
To make ends meet
I raise a family
Feed my children
save something
For a rainy day

You still think
I am different
living in a hut
away from the people

True I live by the river
watching birds fly

water gliding down
I live happily
with no swimming pool
Fans above my head
no hangers-on
to praise me

But just like you
I grow old
Fall sick
and wither away
The only difference
between you and me
I write poems
but you don't

R.S. Karunaratne

A parody - Go Sri Lanka!

We once had a sweet little Cup, dears
The prettiest Cup in the world!
How proudly it bore our name, dears
As we stood under our banner unfurled

But we lost our dear little Cup, dears
As we played in England's fields one day
And we cried for years and months, dears
Though we well knew who stole it away!

Yet hopefully we'll find our Cup, dears
In the days not too far away
They'll say we look terribly changed, dears
From the ones who were weeping that day

And now the time has come, dears
We're just counting the days and hours,
Our spirits are soaring high, dears
For that sweet little Cup will be ours!

Sheila Gunasekera