Two poems about time
Books & Poetry
Thoughts about time out being as important as time in inspire two offerings from Dinali Virasinghe for this week’s Poet’s Corner.
Can I stop now?
Is it okay? Enough now?
Can I stop?
Put down the achievement goals
sink into a chair with a book.
Escape.
Somewhere in the wilder world
a possum wakes to acrobatically manoeuvre through trees.
A fox slinks though undergrowth,
prowling for the unlucky creature
that will become a meal tonight.
Birds have long finished their day’s song.
The sun has moved onto other lands.
A half moon is winging her way,
following the sun’s path
to the horizon of disappearance in the west.
And I am still burdened by a yardstick
I can never measure up to.
Post-it Note
To gaze at the etcher sketch tableaux that is our sky,
to eavesdrop on the chitter-chatter of birds
and to skydive out of my frenzied mind
into solid flesh, bones and sinew.
To hear the breath that moves from my being to yours,
to all beings in the symphony of life
and notice the soul that stirs in rapture
at being part of the Earth’s unfolding.
Each moment reclaimed from the humdrum busyness
that we are conditioned to enact
to justify our existence in the meanness of modernity,
gives meaning to our existence
within the cosmic festival of living and dying
that pays no heed to bank balances or status symbols.
Born in Sri Lanka, Dinali Virasinghe lives in Adelaide. A teacher of yoga, environmental scientist and gardener, her collection ‘Meandering on the Margins’ was published last year and she has read her work on Radio Adelaide and regularly reads at Soul Lounge Adelaide.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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