Ondaatje & Halpe: “Lakdhas Wikkramasinha”

By W. Van Der Beck The collected works of Lakdhas Wikkramasinha (also spelt in other places as Lakdasa Wikkramasinha, Lakdas Wikkrama Sinha, and Lakdas Wikkramasinha), edited by Michael Ondaatje and Aparna Halpe , based in Canada, was released recently. The collection was in the works for a while and was launched in the New York...

A Decade of Uncertainty: Hasitha Wickremasinghe’s Post-war Impressions

By Vihanga Perera Hasitha Wickremasinghe Hasitha Wickremasinghe’s Connected by a Breath (2022) is a collection of 36 poems written over a decade and a half, from 2008 and 2022. This odd ratio between composition and time spent composing highlights an important aspect in this poet's work: that Wickremasinghe doesn’t force herself to produce with a...

Some Defining Aspects of Palitha Ranatunge’s “My Epitaph for You”

By Vihanga Perera My Epitaph for You (2020) is Palitha Ranatunge’s third collection, after A Shifting in My Paradigm and The Crimson Sky, and arguably his best work to date. It consists of 41 poems of which the personal poems dominate the collection including a corpus notable for its expressions of anxiety, vulnerability, and moments...

Concerns Like Death and Decay in Vivimarie Vanderpoorten’s “Borrowed Dust”

By Subhagya Liyanage Vivimarie Vanderpoorten’s Borrowed Dust demonstrates a straightforward writing style that predominantly explores the themes of love, loss, death, and some issues of socio-political relevance. Although the blurbs on the book’s back cover make note of Vanderpoorten as a “deceptively simple” writer who “hides her art and craft” (emphasis added) in uncomplicated poetry,...

The Redeeming Features of Isurinie Mallawaarachchi’s “Flowers Teach Me to Let Go”

By Nipuni Ranaweera Isurunie Mallawaarachchi’s Flowers Teach Me to Let Go (2022) is a collection that brings on a writer’s brutal honesty in discussing (mainly) difficult truths dealing with one’s self, but which also demonstrates scope for improvement – mainly, in the formal aspects of the poetry. It’s a maiden collection by a poet who...

Against the Straight World: Ranudi Gunawardena’s “The Daisies in Our Hearts”

By Vihanga Perera Ranudi Gunawardena’s The Daisies in Our Hearts is a collection of 50 poems that is arranged under seven thematic installments. It is essentially a collection of the heart, but one that demonstrates familiarity with the “English tradition”, receives inspiration from older work and, in places, showcases mastery over one’s emotions. To explain...

The Classical Imprint in Aruni Walker’s Poems

The Classical Imprint in Aruni Walker's Poems in Odyssea. By Vihanga Perera Though it is almost a cliché for essayists to flag Patrick Fernando’s The Return of Ulysses (1955) as a case study in the use of the classical metaphor in local English poetry, such usage is by no means a dated practice. A survey...

Sandesh Bartlett on Mortal and Immortal Things

"Spilling the Ink" on the Inner Self: Sandesh Bartlett on Mortal and Immortal Things By Gayathri Madhurangi Hewagama Aptly titled, Of God, of Man, and Mortal Things (2020), Sandesh Bartlett’s collection of poetry offers a poem for each different taste and mood. The topics range from what is conventionally deemed political to the conventionally personal;...

“Stray Kites” by Malinda Seneviratne

A Less Memorable Collection: Malinda Seneviratne's Stray Kites By Subhagya Liyanage In his introduction to Stray Kites and Stringless Days (or known simply as Stray Kites), Malinda Seneviratne shares with the reader a long-lost piece in which he relates an experience involving a kite. Here, Seneviratne equates the eventual letting go of a kite and...

Politics of Motherhood in Nipuni Ranaweera’s “Take me in Small Doses”.

Politics of Motherhood in Nipuni Ranaweera’s Take me in Small Doses. By Aruni Walker The state of being a mother, its roles, and projections imply a prominent discussion focus in the poems Nipuni Ranaweera has collected as Take Me in Small Doses. The poems depict the poet in a struggle to find self and meaning...