Ironically

When thoughts are held back
And our feelings encrypted
The secrets spill out

Affirmation

Now I fall asleep
Knowing life could be even
Better than my dreams
______________________________

I wrote you a song
And sang it into the wind
Like a secret wish

Thank you

A gift is by far
Reflective of the giver
Than the receiver

ieibb1tsx

Across the oceans you lie
Beyond my grasp
In this small world
Separated by a thin veil
Of unfamiliarity
Perhaps you are awake
Thinking...
Or dreaming
In peaceful slumber
I imagine
But I may never know
Unless you tell me now
Like you did once
On a day like this
Then I would know
That you know
What I have only suspected
Until now

Answer me...

Just before twilight in the eastern sky
I was walking back to my humble abode
All night I had made my computer fly
With simulations that ran on obscure code
A crescent moon floated over the trees
Hung like a hammock with a heavy load
Heaven was abuzz with stars like bees
And the soft moonlight shone on the road

Though for a moment I savoured the sight
A scene of such pure and reticent splendour
I didn’t know whether my mind had might
To my heart’s queries, any answers render
We know so little yet we know so much
But when in doubt, do we bow and surrender?
Doubting what we cannot see or touch;
Why should we rebuke what's true and tender?

While working on my Thesis...

Tonight I shall not write any verses
But complete these darn simulations
To break out of this spell and curses
Infested with intellectual tribulations
The past week has seen me progress
Thanks to some inspiring revelations
But I must maintain the momentum
Without seeking garrulous adulations
In the next two weeks I must focus
And on studies make a full application
The sure flow of time could engulf me
So I can't leave room for lamentation
When I am tempted to inscribe verses
I will somehow resist those temptations
Until irony of this very verse haunts me
And wreck my thought in its foundations

Haiku

I lay on wet grass
Waiting for a shooting star
To wish you were mine
______________________________________

Will you write to me?
I will write back like always
Anonymously

My Island

I was born by the mighty riverside
By the garden of orchid blooms
And grew up at the foot of a mountain
Near a lake dressed in misty looms

I danced in the monsoon showers
And played with the wind and sun
The mountain would hug and kiss me
Whenever to its rocky bosom I run

A silent city in the valley below
Its streets full of smiling faces
Hustling with unassuming romance;
Made memories with eternal traces

I dream of the grand old chapel
That floats on tall granite towers
Her walls draping with the murals
Of humanity and its divine powers

Fond memories of a magical childhood
That taught us of happiness and strife
It would make from total strangers
An abundance of good friends for life

Leaving my home in the mountains
I flew across the oceans with pride
To learn lessons that made me discover
Wonderful secrets with every stride

Yet my spirit still lingers in paradise
With the smiles that I left behind
In my dreams I cross the oceans
Hidden memories in time to find

Now dreams are drowned by bugles
Great rivers are swelling with tears
The distant rhythms of a war march
Had traded those smiles for old fears

My mind was suppressed by a helmet
Free thoughts held back in behest
They said my heart won’t be broken
As it was protected by a Kevlar vest

My comrades and friends lay dying
But a qualm their minds would smother
The land for which they had died for
Was it the lap of their weeping mother?

The moon made a wish for our nation
That fell from the sky like a star
A white dove flew in from the horizon
And we celebrated the end of a war

Hidden Art

That's me peeping in from the edge. Cloudless days such as this one are not rare during springtime here in Melbourne. This was taken in 2004 when Buths, Praveen and I made a pilgrimage to Phillip Island to see the Penguins there. Praveen took this picture. He didn't mean to take this picture. It was an accident... an honest mistake. Yet, it is arguably the closest encounter he has had with 'Art' in his entire life. So it was a nice accident. Only he doesn't think it is. How sad!

A wonderer’s song

She sends me kisses with rain drops
That land on my lips from the skies
The wind blows a silent promise
That my heart stole from her eyes
I sing with the birds every morning
And hear the echo of her sweet voice
But I wonder the earth without her
So for now a dream would suffice
Every little molecule that greets me
Is a pledge of a delightful surprise
I still remain hungry and foolish
Perhaps love will make me wise

I thought about you

When the tea bags danced
In my brown mug
With blistering water;
And a noisy choir of birds
Sang their morning songs outside my window...
I thought about you.

When I stepped into the sun
On this glorious spring day,
The mild warmth of sunshine
And a cold wind greeted me.
As I zipped up my jacket and welcomed the day...
I thought about you.

When a glowing moon
Shot up before dusk
From a purple horizon;
Like a fire cracker,
Waiting to explode into a million stars...
I thought about you.

I may have dreamt,
Of those long dark curls
And sharp bright eyes.
So I pause and think.
I feel I do, but my mind still doesn’t know why...
I thought about you.

Do you think we will be
Unfortunate or sad
If we never even meet?
We are strangers still;
So I don’t know how you’d feel if you knew that...
I thought about you

This minute

WARNING!
(Under construction - Cousins working on site. Please wear protective gear. Do not trespass.)

By Namali Premawardhana & Harendra Alwis

A minute in the life of a lonely boy
Sixty seconds of agony
Do you call it a waste of time?
Can you honestly call it a waste of time?
When sixty seconds of agony
Just pass him by

A minute in the life of a lonely girl
Sixty seconds of pain
Do you call it a waste of time?
Can you honestly call it a waste of time?
When sixty seconds of pain
Just pass her by

Chorus:
Each minute is a treasure worth a thousand smiles
Don't spend them on tears or worthless sighs
Open your heart
Spread your wings and fly
This minute is precious
This is your life

Betrayed (Dedicated to the smartest 11 year-old I know)

Two lives that bore another
Sleep in two distant corners
Of a remorseless world
The little nest they built
Once held together by love
And promise
Is now fractured by memories
Half truths and lies
And betrayals
Of yesterday

Their little boy
Is tucked under a blanket
Of a dark experience
He sleeps
In a forsaken Palace
Trying to hold on
To receding dreams
The only glow in his world
Is the dim starlight

He struggles to understand
How those who loved him
And he loved so dearly
Could let him down
And take away his childhood
He will have to learn again
To trust
The love of another person
And to bear the pain
That love alone can cause
In its absence

People he once loved
Commands him
To have more faith
And hope
But each rising sun
Is a test that he must pass
To survive in a world
More cruel and unforgiving
Than those who stole the smile
He always wore on his face

He wakes up
To endure another day
To win the small battles
That life has arranged for him
To fill empty minutes
At school
With friends
In the playgrounds
Along dusty streets
And long winding roads
Of time

Sometimes he sings
A soft happy tune
From a happier time
He pretends and acts
But he cannot find the script
Of this drama
That he is acting in now
The scenes roll on
But there are no awards or medals
For the best actors and actresses

He can no longer notice
Or smell the sweetness
Of flowers in his own garden
Because winds carry the stench
Of rotting garbage dumps
That a wasted city
Has thrown by the roadside
He bravely blows away
Painful memories into the breeze
But also looses his grip
On happier ones