This land
is every land there ever was
and ever will be,
this land
is not foreign
to foreign soil,
gaze upon it
and that’s all it takes
to obtain permanent residency
to love and hate
to own and disown
This land passes
from generation to generation
traveller to traveller
journal and revision,
it has moved from hand to hand
been chit-chatted about
civilized and vilified
and yet
again and again
through ownership and bombardment
lyrical rendering and misrepresentation
it rises
from cartography and cartographer
traveller and description
long nights
and blazing afternoons,
emerging in colour and storm
wave and wave-remnant
through mist and forgetting
rides on parallel lines
and wanders in impossible universes.
There are temples made of rock
and made of seaspray and yearning,
monuments from the past
as fresh as imagined tomorrows,
boats and carpets
lines and curves.
This land
is a beautiful woman,
an old woman’s recollection
a baby’s ripple of laughter,
a song sculpted without blueprint
plundered without mercy
lost without name
but always,
always
signatured with love.
[from the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves,' shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011]
LEAVE A COMMENT
Every land has few or all these qualities that you have mentioned here in the poem. history is monumental and embraceable our country has such a history. Dambullu Viharaya to Sigiriya rock parewi duwa pansala, Sri dalada maligawa all these are monumental.....sacred, lovely .... our history, our present and they are our future too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that she lost without a name she still appears in the map of this world so strongly and no one can erase her name from the world map. she erased the ones that came her way .... the ruthless terrorists LTTE she is that brave.
i agree she will always , always put her signature with love where ever she goes.....' Sri Lanka' so memorable who ever visits even once of their lives. i am sure that no travelers will forget her .....
The' winning' mind set of its people abhor the passing of hand to hand of their land and so they clash.
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