Rukshan Abeywansha*

Life is life

with or without scribe

for men come and go

and women too

but life has come-go ways

and ways of being

some apparent and some blurred

but there are eyes

and there are eyes

some can freeze movement

and unfreeze the solid

to this date we do not know

if it was about lens and zoom

or heart and smile

butRukshan’s pick and choose

drew out salience 

fingertip work

that touched

blessed

healed

made whole

made tender.

Pics by RukshanAbeywansha

This side of the smile...

From inspiration to review
is a many centuries’ journey
and somewhere between
a screen and a story
eyes and a film
but frame to frame
there are people and sets
shots and errors
twists of script and life
and in the end
when player has gone
camera rests in case
everything has been said
and perhaps nothing too.  

[Inspired by the photopgraphy of Rukshan Abeywansha]

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Aluth Avurudda

Recognized in customs
togetherness and giving
sharing and forgiving
new clothes and freshness
holidays and holidaying
the solemn and carefree
overflowing gladness
and burying of inconsequentiality 
this Avurudda
the true New Year of the nation
is a solidarity marker
where auspicious 
is wrought of oneness
a one-moment match-strike
a one-moment partaking
one-moment anointing 
from Devundara to Peduru Thuduwa
across random boundaries
and fantasy line,
it’s a Sinhala thing, a Tamil thing
but not forbidden to anyone else
either in observation of receipt 
of kindness and gift,
it is the annual renewal
of nation and citizenship
affirmation of history 
and heritage
the foundation 
of all our tomorrows.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha, and published in THE NATION, April 14, 2013]

Soil and seed, man and woman

Once there was earth
soil that lay over seed
soil that broke with stem and leaf
soil that made way for root;
once there was a tree
of trunk and branch
now leafed now shedded;
and from earth
and other seed
other root and longing
there came man
there came women;
and as tree crafts them
they craft tree,
at times soft and at times rough,
and in the vessels they are
and the vessels they make
the poundings given and taken
shelter and ingratitude
resurrection of the dead
there is wood and timber
earth and soil
moved and moving
and love
that stays
long after tree
long after man and woman
long after death,
in and out of soil
because of root
and arms that reached
and touched a sky.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha, published in the FINE Section of THE NATION, March 10, 2013] 

 

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This nation is resilient

We will not petition the UNHRC

we will not confess to uncommitted crimes
we have nothing to say
to the ignorant,
to the blind,
to the selective inquirer;
we live instead
as we have
speak to one another
discourse with the wise
confess to the compassionate
as we are compassionate to confessor
open to the open-mind
firm in our faith
tested in our solidarities
resolute in the face
of storms beyond our strength
tender in the passing of time
in full cognition of light and shade
and the infinities of configuration
we fall, we rise
as we always have.


[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha and published in the FINE Section of THE NATION, February 24, 2013]

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Kaudulla

Man and elephant
beast and beast
they’ve stared
at one another
stared down, backed off
trampled and shot
fallen and picked up
an ancient love-hate
in a modern twist
of encroachment
unrolling of map
bullet-marking
of traditional homeland
but here
for now
there is peace
(of a kind)
one shoots
and the other gets shot,
beast and beast
in informal ‘acceptability’
of grudge and shrug.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansa, published in the FINE Section of 'The Nation', December 16, 2012]

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Beyond light and dark

So we light
one lamp after another
row upon row
and they send arrows
to dissect the dark
illuminate face
of lighter and lit
and the oil feeds
burns wick
and dies
and darkness recovers
traditional homeland
but in the aftermath
of festivity and fire
in the after-death of light
and the re-encroachment of night
nothing forbids
a re-ignition
a turning of symbol
an illumination
of the eternal verities
the true dimensions
of atman
and the negation of definitive line
and all other errors
light-quenched and lit.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha and published in the UNDO Section of 'The Nation']

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FAITH NODES

Pierce and bind

a tug-release dance

a roll-over

and over again

pin-point to pin-point

affirmation

testimony of belief

where devout submits

without flinch

and witness wonders

winces at perceived pain,

where primary colour

plays with primary element

the timeless tale

of human frailty

and endless drawing

from the unlimited

and untimate treasury:

faith.

[inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha and published in the UNDO Section of 'The Nation', September 30, 2012]

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Gem and Jewellery show

Decorator of crown,

beautifier of naked neck

witness to union

marker of class,

gem and jewellery

are made for show,

the ultimate frill

but behind the ornate

the crusting

lance and polish

there is another hand

other foreheads

with de-jewelled beads

undermined names

that are un-googled

from fashionable transcripts

lost in the mud-letting

of cosmetic commerce,

and shadowed in the glitter

they’ve crafted:

we bury ourselves

in our respective

political economies.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansa]

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Shoe flower mornings

Life is a seed and a flower,
petalled and coloured,
tiny and amazing
ebullient and pitiful
made for bloom and withering
but shoe-flower is all this
and none of this
and earth-bed for dew drop
refrigerator for butterfly and bee
subject for photographer
inspiration for poet
offering for the altar
eye-widener for child;
it’s a pollen-life tale
it is love-peel if you will
made of chapter and verse
of all grand narratives
that count;
the morning glory we no longer see
for having lived and seen so much
the so much that blinds,
but this is redness un-ignorable
it is tap root of tenderness
the call to prayer
and weeping,
uncontrollable laughter
is scripted here
and so too
the half-smile
of a girl sworn to silence
in the cross-fire
of insecurities;
show-flower tortures
in many way
and in many ways
heals;
it is yours
to read as you will. 

[inspired by the poetry of Rukshan Abeywansha and published in 'The Nation']

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Ballad of stork and fish

It’s swoop and kill time,

hold in beak, swallow and fly;

but taking has names and names,

nutritional requirement

Darwinist truism

natural control of population

elegant lens-capture

neat ‘lay-outing’

poetized gathering,

but for victim, though,

it’s small talk come too late

just ‘was’ and ‘is no more’.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha]

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A curl of cinnamon

Cinnamon is bark
is bite and flavor-flush,
intoxicating aroma too,
a lakeside, a garden
commodity and profit-giver,
and like all things exotic,
it begins with sweat,
the arc of labour,
the art of crafting
the curl and bind
of political economy
game for child
business as usual for end-adult
necessity for primary-adult
a taste of heaven
cooked on earth
with hands
and fires that resisted dousing
century after century after century.

[Inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha]

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Rain-takes

Fresh, so fresh, exciting!
hot, so hot,
hotter than Global Warming at its worst
water is play-invite
rain or sun
it’s lightness of being
light, so light
it’s made for flying
flyer and spectator
when it rains, it rains
we live with it, we play
like snow
made for snowmen and snow angels
and sun
for tan and crop
and drying clothes,
embrace empowers
curse detracts
and that’s the story
the poet missed
when a lie was immortalized:
‘rain, rain, go away!’

[inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansha]

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Signatures of sustainability

Their footprints will grow

as shadows do

longer by the hour;

smiles will not grow wider

for the yawn of dream and reality

collapses fast in dream-fade

and in that short road to adulthood

smaller footprints will show

that life follows life

city skyline grows higher

landscape becomes art form

children will smile

now and then and again,

and in the swift movement of nation

from the here to there

of design and architecture,

glitter and ambience

poverty remains alas

slow of foot,

resilient.

*Pic by Rukshan Abeywansha

[Published in the 'UNDO' section of The Nation, April 22, 20112]

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Podi Haamuduruwo

Child, yes
and child enough
for boyishness
with spring and chuckle
but coyness too
in the framing of robe
the vinaya rules
and the larger dictates:
the paramitas
the karmic power
the choice and choice-lack
the producers perhaps
of this here and this now
of this childhood’s ordained colours
of reflection and reflexivity.

[inspired by the photography of Rukshan Abeywansa]

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