SRI LANKA - POETRY [ BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA ]

Published from the book - Cameos by Sam Waidyasekera.

Daphne

Soft and silky hair abound

Her skin is fair and clear

With milky freshness,

And eager as Babblers' trills

Her melodious cadences fill

The air with fine refrain.

And I the hermit, if you permit

Gaze with wonder and with love

At the sweetest flower beyond

The bubbling ocean, faltery and uncertain,

While gaily hued moths and words

Flit abut her shapely mouth and tone,

And her proud mein light and limn

The lines of classic grace,

And my pace is fine, and her eyes are mine

They have splendor Divine.

Published with the approval of  the editor of Cameos - Harry Waidyasekera.    

SRI LANKA - POETRY [ BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA ]

Daphne

Soft and silky hair abound

Her skin is fair and clear

With milky freshness,

And eager as Babblers trills

Her melodious cadences fill

The air with fine refrain.

And I the Hermit, if you permit

Gaze with wonder and with love

At the sweetest flower beyond

The bubbling ocean, faltery and uncertain,

While gaily hued moths and words

Flit about her shapely mouth and tone,

And her proud mien, light and limn

The lines of classic grace,

And her pace is fine, and her eyes are mine

They have splendour Divine.

Published from the book ' Cameos '

By the late Sam Waidyasekera.

SRI LANKA - POETRY [ THE MANTIS OF THE NIGHT ]

The Mantis of the Night

I

It is twelve midnight,

My blog I write.

There comes a Mantis under my light,

I am thinking of what might,

Happen to it tonight,

In its flight through the night.

It will have to give a hard fight,

To ward off a bite,

Of a bigger creature of the night.

 It flies out of my sight,

Into the still and starry night.

My blog I write,

Sans Mantis of the night.

Written by : Nelsonlanka

Pics         : Nelsonlanka

Motorola Z 3

SRI LANKA - POETRY [ BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA ]

The Sea Breeze




I saw the sea wide and free
Beneath the airy sky,
And wondered why it was not me
Who was standing by.


I watched the waves move to and fro
And dash at rocks at bay,
They would not budge but wanted more
Of splash of waters gay.


I felt the fan of stirring breeze
That hummed its way along,
And whistle past the greeny trees
It was a bracy morn !


Published from the book ' Cameos ' by the late Sam Waidyasekera, [ 1936 - 1972 ], 
with the approvalof Harry Waidyasekera, the Editor.

SRI LANKA - POETRY [ BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA ]

A Silken Morn

It's a soft silky day

Waves are silken gay,

And greet us shimmery white

As does the diffused light

By benign clouds

Spread among the covered wide.

The sands are getting softer

With friendly purling streams

Of constant intersperse

Sandy crabs jerk and nibble

With lighthouse eyes

And varying size.

I am on the hull

Of a sailing craft

Wood and blade and rope and bamboo,

The wind whips past

The penson mast

Welcoming the after ocean blast.

And I'm light as a lark

And quote as well

Aglow with the ocean spark

And coves and slouching arms

Nestling among thy charms

and hum lully psalms.

Source :' Cameos ' by the late Sam Waidyasekera

SRI LANKA - POETRY [ "It Is Raining" By The Late Sam Waidyasekera ]

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED FROM THE BOOK 'CAMEOS '- BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA (1936-1972), WITH THE APPROVAL OF HARRY WAIDYASEKERA, THE EDITOR.


THE PASSAGES OF THIS BOOK CONTAIN SOME REPRESENTATIVE WRITINGS OF THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA WHO DIED AT AN EARLY AGE OF THIRTY SIX. THEY FORM A SMALL PART OF A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPTS, LEFT BEHIND BY SAM WAIDYASEKERA, AND HAVE BEEN EDITED AND PUBLISHED PARTLY IN MEMORY OF HIS LABORS OVER SEVERAL YEARS AND PARTLY AS THEY PROVIDE AN INSIGHT INTO HIS KEEN POWERS OF OBSERVATION AND PHILOSOPHICAL MENTALITY INTO MANY MATTERS, RANGING FROM THE APPARENTLY TRIVIAL TO ONES OF A MORE REFLECTIVE NATURE.

WRITTEN IN A CLEAR,DELIGHTFUL AND OFTEN HUMOROUS STYLE AND LANGUAGE,THEY PORTRAY THE AUTHOR'S ATTITUDE AND OBSERVATIONS ON ORDINARY AND SIMPLE FOLK HE MET IN REAL LIFE AND PLACES HE VISITED DURING HIS RAMBLINGS AND WHICH CREATED AN IMPRESSION IN HIS VIVID MIND. CAMEOS IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS, THE FIRST CONTAINS PROFILES OF MANY PERSONALITIES AND CHARACTERS HE CAME ACCROSS IN ORDINARY LIFE; THE SECOND, HIS IMPRESSIONS IN VERSE AND THE THIRD PART AN ACCOUNT OF SOME PILGRIMAGES AND EXCURSIONS.

HIS WRITINGS ON MORE DEEPER MATTERS OF A SCIENTIFIC, METAPHYSICAL AND ESOTERIC CHARACTER ARE CONTAINED IN ANOTHER VOLUME ENTITLED 'ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND THE ESOTERIC'.

It Is Raining

Life is drops of rain falling,

Life is a ground of sound sinking,

The tone is damp,

And coldly cumulating,

Lightly reverberates thunder in the inky haze.

Life is heavy and droll and weary,

Life is dark and dross and deary,

The color is gully,

Black and flashy stale,

Earth is soaked in unshed tears of young wail.

Leaders lead themselves astray mightily,

They are in my way flightily,

In vans and cars and caravans,

Jostling and jumbling, to them ahoy!

While truth and justice is my joy,

It is raining in mockery spite,

While flesh and waif are stuttering white,

It is rain falling out inside,

Running the course of shaky night,

That will bring morn and shady light.

                                                                                          

SRI LANKA - CAMEOS - LAD OF THE SANDS

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED FROM THE BOOK 'CAMEOS '- BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA (1936-1972), WITH THE APPROVAL OF HARRY WAIDYASEKERA, THE EDITOR.

THE PASSAGES OF THIS BOOK CONTAIN SOME REPRESENTATIVE WRITINGS OF THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA WHO DIED AT AN EARLY AGE OF THIRTY SIX. THEY FORM A SMALL PART OF A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPTS, LEFT BEHIND BY SAM WAIDYASEKERA, AND HAVE BEEN EDITED AND PUBLISHED PARTLY IN MEMORY OF HIS LABORS OVER SEVERAL YEARS AND PARTLY AS THEY PROVIDE AN INSIGHT INTO HIS KEEN POWERS OF OBSERVATION AND PHILOSOPHICAL MENTALITY INTO MANY MATTERS, RANGING FROM THE APPARENTLY TRIVIAL TO ONES OF A MORE REFLECTIVE NATURE.

WRITTEN IN A CLEAR,DELIGHTFUL AND OFTEN HUMOROUS STYLE AND LANGUAGE,THEY PORTRAY THE AUTHOR'S ATTITUDE AND OBSERVATIONS ON ORDINARY AND SIMPLE FOLK HE MET IN REAL LIFE AND PLACES HE VISITED DURING HIS RAMBLINGS AND WHICH CREATED AN IMPRESSION IN HIS VIVID MIND. CAMEOS IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS, THE FIRST CONTAINS PROFILES OF MANY PERSONALITIES AND CHARACTERS HE CAME ACCROSS IN ORDINARY LIFE; THE SECOND, HIS IMPRESSIONS IN VERSE AND THE THIRD PART AN ACCOUNT OF SOME PILGRIMAGES AND EXCURSIONS.

HIS WRITINGS ON MORE DEEPER MATTERS OF A SCIENTIFIC, METAPHYSICAL AND ESOTERIC CHARACTER ARE CONTAINED IN ANOTHER VOLUME ENTITLED 'ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND THE ESOTERIC'.

LAD OF THE SANDS

He was slim and delicate with two bony hands hanging on the pingo by the heap of sand. His navy blue shorts was a mesh of holes and stitches. He was by no means bright and energetic. He bore the innocence of a child, he was yet a child. His age was twelve or thirteen, he said in pensive reflection. There was a tenderness in his physique. "I attend the Church school, I am in standard five," but these answers were not direct or sharp.

He wore the pinky flush if a soft young leaf but bore the desultoriness of a shabby existence. His father was blind in one eye and sick these days, his mother unemployed and there were four children in the family. A relative helped occasionally, he often went hungry in the morning and sometimes in the night. A piece of bread, a helping of bread fruit constituted his daily diet. And they gave a biscuit at school.

He had to shift sand to get some money for books and other school expenses. But shifting sand from the shore across the railway line on to the sand yard where carts load and remove it is a competitive business. Sturdy women are at the job and they wield a greater influence among the carters. "See" said the lad sheepishly "a cart is being loaded from their heaps."

Before school and before the sun rose hot and high he could haltingly shift about seven pingo loads. After school in the evening with the dipping sun he could load another seven, all in all about one cart load. The sand women could heap up about three times this amount over across on the yard. And after his heap was made he had to go about seeking and soliciting carters and their carts, a tiresome and difficult business with small success.

This was his first trip for the evening.I helped load his pingo baskets with sand from his heap off the shore with a mamotty and cleaning the ropes of the sand, bent down to try it on my shoulders. Oh lord! what deadly weight. A shock went through my body, I staggered and thought my back would break. I looked at the lad in dismay. The lad seemed amused at my discomfort. I said "This is far too heavy for you." "It is heavy' he indicated. I take it with several stops. We lessened sand to his normal amount. He lifted the pingo on to his small back and holding each bundle of rope with each hand gingerly started walking up the mound. He rested when two trains whizzed pass each other on the tracks, and I watched on as he labored on to the yard and emptied his load quietly on an unobtrusive corner, while the loads of the women and sturdy carters held the center of the court.

SRI LANKA - CAMEOS - BY SAM WAIDYASEKERA

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED FROM THE BOOK 'CAMEOS '- BY THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA (1936-1972), WITH THE APPROVAL OF HARRY WAIDYASEKERA, THE EDITOR.

THE PASSAGES OF THIS BOOK CONTAIN SOME REPRESENTATIVE WRITINGS OF THE LATE SAM WAIDYASEKERA WHO DIED AT AN EARLY AGE OF THIRTY SIX. THEY FORM A SMALL PART OF A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPTS, LEFT BEHIND BY SAM WAIDYASEKERA, AND HAVE BEEN EDITED AND PUBLISHED PARTLY IN MEMORY OF HIS LABORS OVER SEVERAL YEARS AND PARTLY AS THEY PROVIDE AN INSIGHT INTO HIS KEEN POWERS OF OBSERVATION AND PHILOSOPHICAL MENTALITY INTO MANY MATTERS, RANGING FROM THE APPARENTLY TRIVIAL TO ONES OF A MORE REFLECTIVE NATURE.

WRITTEN IN A CLEAR,DELIGHTFUL AND OFTEN HUMOROUS STYLE AND LANGUAGE,THEY PORTRAY THE AUTHOR'S ATTITUDE AND OBSERVATIONS ON ORDINARY AND SIMPLE FOLK HE MET IN REAL LIFE AND PLACES HE VISITED DURING HIS RAMBLINGS AND WHICH CREATED AN IMPRESSION IN HIS VIVID MIND. CAMEOS IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS, THE FIRST CONTAINS PROFILES OF MANY PERSONALITIES AND CHARACTERS HE CAME ACCROSS IN ORDINARY LIFE; THE SECOND, HIS IMPRESSIONS IN VERSE AND THE THIRD PART AN ACCOUNT OF SOME PILGRIMAGES AND EXCURSIONS.

HIS WRITINGS ON MORE DEEPER MATTERS OF A SCIENTIFIC, METAPHYSICAL AND ESOTERIC CHARACTER ARE CONTAINED IN ANOTHER VOLUME ENTITLED 'ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND THE ESOTERIC'.

ON LOVE AT A MORNING WALK

A morning stroll do I take and mix with the surge of life,

Roving bands in energetic strife,

I seek answers to this quarrel,

What is the end of life-

Perhaps the end is Love.

I wait for my beloved chaste in the glow of womanhood,

Intelligent of my need of her

And communing in the way of lovers

Murmer "Love".

I walk along the spreading sands

Finely golden sands,

Becon the outlaw doggie that seeketh its company

Rolling in its warmth,

And stroke him tenderly,

Love golden at the pale of strife

Emerging to the fore.

And on along the sands I walk,till I meet

The lad and women of the sands,

They know me and smile

"You have come again", "And why not" I ask,

I walk along with the lad walking hungrily

Glad of my company,wait beside the track

When the grandson of Beating the fisherman

Stays for a word,

Their heads I tussle in simple fondness,

Youth at the threshhold;

Leaving the friendly women of the sands behind,

I am back on the road musing-

There is love at the core.

Perhaps the answer that is both the Begining and the End.