Truth

Not in the gaze
of half-closed eyes
not in postural balance
not in symmetry
not in craft or crafting
the collapse of dimensions
not in any of these
and other ephemerality
and yet embedded
in the ways of clarity
the path to which
The Word describes.




[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Parallel Lives

You and I
are colored,
I as white
and you as black
one an embroidery
and the other its reverse
my world and yours
one made
one making
one asserted
the other not
and so we get to
‘Squeaky Clean’
one to clear
one to walk
each to his or her
life corner
and life ways
by the other
unneeded
apparently.

(Ad)dresses

Elegance is a dress
ornament and frill
the enhancement by context
rubbing off from promiximity;
elegance can stand on its own
unclothed and nondescript
regardless of backdrop
of background
in solemn affirmations
and polite decline.





Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon

Un-capturing

In the best-dressed post

in unpretentious as-is
in incredulity and knowing
the garmenting by time
and the coverings of propriety
in the before and after of pose
shadows move from West to East
on either side of nothing.




Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon

Sizes

A blade of grass for the ant
Shrub for a blade of grass
Canopy for shrub
Sky for all;
we are giants all of us
ants too
shaded and shading
in endowment
in acquiring
and shedding
designed or accidental.




Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon

Two Houses

The once splendid and admired
with laughter creeping up the walls
love ornamenting table and shelf
hope as fresh as paint
fade, mould and crumble
but she in her perishability
gathers and grows
in accumulation or discard
in the other, more enduring.




[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Motherhood

The license
for anytime proximity
hands for caress and take-care
gaze to watch for trip
feet to move and pick
warmth for comforting
all heart-made
in the give-all generosity
and take-all of suffering
that is maternity.

[Inspired by the line drawings
of Gamini Abeykoon]

Domesticity

The natural is for harvest
take as given
give as taken
then toil and mould
from earth to hearth
hand to mouth
in long-learned
moderation.




[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Ode to garments

For the blurring of line
melting of infinities
explosion of impossibility
there’s an unclothing-prerequisite.
The seen and touched
thus drop to footnote
in a flesh-flesh tale
but love and loving
are soil and seed
for garments
of other spin
leaf and petal and thorn
weaver their other-decencies
by and by.

[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Landscape People

Leaf-people
that’s what we are:
come in different sizes
shapes and color
edges sharp and blunt
textures rough and tender;
Rock people
that’s what we are
in size and shape
accessible and aloof
smooth and slippery
visible and hidden.




[Inspired by the line-drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Withering

Birth to death and beyond
traceable in form-movement
the gathering of lines
shedding of leaves
the undressing of frill
nudities un-anticipated
which nevertheless arrive,
encroch and evict,
and yet in this divestment
there’s accumulation
knowing and appreciation
and karmic collection
in a differently paced withering.




[Inspired by the line-drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Adam and Eve

They were not born
not on Day One
they were born though,
and they live now
and they’ll be born again
will be clothed and unclothed
will unite and part
will know tears and smiles
and the soft of love-eye gaze
they will lean on tree
and on one another,
they will recline too
where they will.




[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

CLEAVING

Landscapes
are made for fracture
they are made by earth-shatter
and wind-water work
slow through century
aross generation
they are cut through and burnt
remodeled and paved
like human miseries
same-same
but for frill and fashion.



[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Burdens

Cow, camel, elephant
horse, donkey and other creatures
lift and pull,
carry and transport
feed gluttony too;
‘karmic lot’
we can dismiss thus,
we
the ultimate beasts of burden
endowed with wisdom
but so poor in sight.






[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

The protection doctrine

As mother embraces child
protects as best she can
shields from worldly horrors
so too the world shields
in known and unknown ways
foliage and shelter
sunshine and rain
those who submit
yield to the eternal verities
in conscious equanimity.

[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

A Dhammapada Etch

Virtue, it is said,
yields benefit
and evil in turn
impoverishes
just as the wheel follows oxen;
and thus we blaze a path
through the wilderness
of our infirmities
and trudge and toil
to destinations
of bliss undefined
but eternal
as is said.


[inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

Contemplation

The world in pulse
in inhale and exhale gives
movement and stillness
warm and cool
dust and sorrow
joy and departure
mendicant and mendicancy
a festival for perpetuation
but eyes can gaze like caress
stillness is learned
and learning
when stilled
yields truth
and finitude eternal
they say.

[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

The parinirvana countenance

The ultimate recline
journey-end without full stop
release into the unaccepting plains
the being and non-being intersection
known by the knowing
imagined but not grasped
caught in part
in poor empathy
but to us on the this-side
of the no-side state
reason to rejoice
reason to embrace
man and word
in meditative caress.

Inspired by the line poetry of Gamini Abeykoon

Beasts and burdens

One on top
and the other below
in the do and obey
of karmic script
or chance births
growing to unhappy fates
each a prisoner
of burdens ordained
viccissitudes
that plague and plague
until the quelling
of order and submission
in some other land
some other time
later rather than sooner
as far as we can see.

[Inspired by the line drawing of Gamini Abeykoon]

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The human landscape

Landscape immemorial

where mountains and valleys

trees and caverns

depressions and signature peaks

are born to decay

in the rise and fall

of civilization and illusion

the erosion of dream

and the reincarnation of hope

these are lines that await us

with soft-time patience.

[Inspired by the line drawings of Gamini Abeykoon]

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