I Was Born Free
They gave me a name with a capital letter
and made my Horoscope?
Registered the Certificate of birth
with their Religion?
In the cradle when I cry
They gave me a Peek-a-Boo Soother
dipped in Glycerine.
I jumped so many times
over the cradle fence.
Remember they enrolled me to a College adjoining a girl's school?
And there I learned about Apollonius
Pythagoras, Euclid's parallel lines
Archimedes, Sir Issac Newton and others too.
When flowery girls play in the grounds
I watch them with my toy telescope a birthday present.
I learned well but failed the Examination?
Recently I realized from a pauper's toothless smile
Nothing we bring here and anything we take away?
To the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis for his great novel 'Zorba the Greek'.
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The Emptiness
Since my childhood I carry a heavy bundle of burden
And recently I opened it and found nothing.
I checked the life's Encyclopedia and found the right word in bold.
' Emptiness.'
* A man actually needs very little to be happy in his lifetime; but he gets lost in his search for false glories and destroys himself.
- 'Zorba the Greek' by Nikos.Kazantsakis
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I walk slowly to my old thatched school
Birch trees have taken off their winter clothes
And exposed to the smiling Sun.
I see no raindrops and birds flew in the sky
Some robins chat with the worms on the playground
Where my grandson merry with the other children in the school.
And the bell rang all lined up like a fancy train to go to their classes.
I was so sad where's my school and the golden class.
The parapet wall divided the Girl school next door
Remember we peeped through the broken spaces
When the flowery girls come out to the grounds!
I was like a punished student at the belfry hall
In the bygone schooldays?
If there's a school for elderly/handicapped
I'll get a photocopy of my tattered certificate of birth
And I really dream to enroll as soon as possible?
[A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows the corners.]
-Irish Proverb
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Grasshopper, Lawnmower and my sweet adolescence
Over the quiet lawn
why this Lawnmower make a big noise?
I cannot hear her chirping
and see the hops.
I remember my schooldays.
The hop-step & jump in the sports meet.
A girls school adjoining to our building
and I was in the Rambler's mischievous batch.
Go behind girls always.
It's really funny.
I gave a letter to a girl who was my younger sister's class mate.
One day my poor mom was reading the letter loudly
and all of my family members passed remarks at me.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A stray Parrot recites the Greek Alphabet
'Alpha, Beta...........&..................sigma...! '
Early in the morning I heard these strange words.
And I saw a Parrot rests on my next door neighbor's olive tree.
'Kali Mera Mastura! , Sorry that means good morning.' Parrot whispered.
'Where are you coming from? ' I asked.
Straight away flew from Greece the country introduced Civilization first.'
I said; 'I like Greece and Nikos.Kazantsakis and his book Zorba the Greek.'
'Oh! Master if you know Nikos.Kazantsakis then you know all about Greece.'
The Parrot imitates the Zorba's dance and I lived in Greece for a while.
How strange the autumnal dreams?
To my poet friend Duncan
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The poet some called him Eccentric
Hey! You asked my Religion very frequently
My Father is a Buddhist and Mother
A Baptized Protestant.
In my certificate of birth they registered me as a Buddhist.
But my religion is Humanism!
I am sure you all laugh and tell;
'There's no Religion by such a name in the World.'
Sorry, this may bitter for you,
When Adam eats the forbidden fruit
Eve's shy and covered her secret place with a Maple leaf?
And the invisible Gardener kept quiet.
That's called Humanism the oldest Religion!
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Please do not break my little Christmas tree
I hung my loved ones photographs over there.
Oh! They are very far away, on the top
My beloved and myself of teary eyes tangled with jingle bells.
Oh! My Landlord gatecrashed, the Greek,
I nicknamed him as 'Socrates'
He called me on my pseudonym 'Don'.
'Merry Christmas' We both greeted simultaneously.
Secretly I winked to my wife tune the radio little louder
There the music of 'Zorba's dance' goes on.
And I offered him a Greek drink 'Ouzo'.
He had two gulps faster and we danced together to the tune of Zorba.
He left with a friendly smile and thank God he didn't grumble of the rent this time.
I murmured to myself 'Long live my Greek God'.
* To the President, I dreamed him last night he disguised as a Santa Claus and distributed some leaflets door to door regarding the health care reform it seems.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A sense of timeless running along the sojourn?
My child little aggressive in the cradle
and I know one day she jumps over the fence,
She cries with her nappy rash
and it's kind of poetry?
After seeing the outer green
Her excrements in green
She absorbed the colours.
Her farts like harmless bombs!
When she crawls I give my hand
to get up.
She learned faster in the University
and chosen her partner too.
As an adult she's busy with her offspring.
This old man became a child and helpless
and when I crawl hardly with my bedsores
Hope you give me your strong hand to bring me up
in a sense of timeless running along this sojourn?
to my poet friend John Thomas Tharayil in gratitude!
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
When I cried eagerly for the crescent Moon
I was a toddler
And still I remember
My deceased poor Mom
Gave me a big slice of Papaya.
Now I realized her unlimited love
When I count the black seeds of the fruit.
* To my dearest Mom! Sorry, I am a pauper and there is no way to publish my dream book of poetry, recently I tried few publishers in the Hell.They like to publish the anthology without a Red cent, but the only problem they say not a single head fond of reading poetry and still they struggle to fill their holey pockets with the dirty currency notes.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Masters
I learned the art of drawing from the sky
learned music from the oceans.
Sun who taught me to fight
and the Moon who taught me to weep.
Arithmetic and Algebra I don't like,
but the twinkling stars helped me a lot to count figures.
Geography and History those are my best.
After the examination I waited for my results
and saw it's written in the sky.
My parents won't believe this
I got a zero for each subject.
I was upset and came running
searching everywhere the Life-Tavern
to have a cup of pain killer,
Then I saw a ragged beggar
Who's never been to a school
Taught me to smile.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In memoriam of their serenity
I like to sleep again in a cradle.
Where is my perambulator?
I lost my feeding bottle
and the bootees are not fit now.
My beautiful mom who was the protectress
of this fawn.
When I crawl you gave me your big hand
my handsome dad.
Where did you go with my poor mom?
It's unbelievable,
When I take my children to school in the morning
I see both of you through the mist at the handrail
with my old books.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Dear Comrade! Erik. Solheim
I too like to hide in your kite's tail
And see a better world from a high.
If the whole world rules by a joker
What a pity instead of a tyrant?
Our children die everywhere kicking the Land mines
And they are very brave sometimes.
They knew your old fox's story
About the bitter grapes,
Not only that,
Pi! A Greek letter used as a symbol for the ratio of a Circle's circumference
To its Diameter. (About 3.14)
They sing the old song of Archimedes 'Eureka! Eureka!' uproariously.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Shani the young poetess from Massachusetts
She knows much but talks very less
And she attached to us before we leave for California.
I learned a lot of things in this fragile life from her innocent smile
And it's a hidden poem really that never published.
* I dedicate this poem in gratitude to her courageous family who gave us tremendous help as same as hospitality in our hard times in the USA.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The difference
I don't see any difference between birth and death
good and bad, happy and sorrow
smile and cry, man and woman et cetera.,
The crawl from cradle to graveyard
one day we have to say good bye to all.
If there is a re-birth? .
We come again in different names and faces.
Former lovers passing themselves
nobody recognizes each other
Oh! what a sad event?
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mocking freedom in cagey avenues?
[Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.]-Faith Baldwin
Fallen leaves of Autumn
Covered the old nursery road
and I pick them one by one
into my pushcart!
Nursery was closed for vacation
A squirrel rested on a bench
and the swings were chained?
It's really hard for me to climb
The Post-office hill
with this nagging sciatica pain?
But I have to send this letter
to my faraway unseen friend.
Rusty coins not sufficient
for the postage it seemed
and do they accept my letter
without a stamp?
Anyway I remember the few lines
of my new poem in the letter
and I murmured to myself
on my way back;
'I saw my bald head
in the shattered mirror
and I threw the toothless comb
into the nearby muddy river.'
To my deceased loving Mother!
(Still through your far seeing eyes I see the puzzling life Mom.)
nimal dunuhinga
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I Fought with the Alphabet
My English teacher said; ' A sentence should start with a capital letter.'
I opposed and she detained me out of the class.
One day I sent her a letter; My dearest Love
'L' with capital.
Since that day she is very kind to me.
But still I am a simple letter.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A sweet memory
Her name is Matilda and she got a very huge bust.
She was nick named by Dairy Queen in the class.
Her family migrated to Great Britain for good
And before she leaves gave her autograph to sign among friends.
Still I remember a friend of mine wrote;
'Matilda this is certain and be careful if you get an opportunity to embrace the Queen, definitely the Buckingham Palace would be collapsed.'
He too lives in U.K and sent me a letter recently that he met Matilda by chance.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Happy Avenue in Thorn Street
The hunchback old beggar who taps the earth with his knotty walking stick and he smiles.
His toothless innocent smile resembles an infant.
'Papa is you talking to someone? '
'Yes my son, each pebble has its own dialect and query the same question.
Does the learned man overthrow the death? '
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Iota Subscript
Seek not in me the bit I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.
So small an I as an attention beggar.
The letter you will find me subscript to
Is neither alpha, eta, nor omega,
But upsilon which is the Greek for you.
poem by Robert Frost
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Falcon
You soar high and from the barren sky
Watch the ants like human,
How they struggle and grab the greasy tricky life
That runs through the bony fingers.
Nothing is certain, we come like water
And go as wind.
Birds sing songs without lyrics and they fly, Man cannot fly with these feeble hands?
Thanks again my friend and your name imprint in my soul list with Omar Khayyam, Nikos Kazantsakis and his great character Zorba as same as Maxim Gorky's Makar Chudra, Loiko Zobar and Radda.
Garcia Lorca, Matsuo Basho the radical Tankist Ishikawa, Alexander Pushkin
And the miracle whistle of Zamfir!
Mysterious smile of Mona Lisa to Neil Armstrong?
*To Warren Falcon the poet!
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A playwright in a lunatic asylum
The Psychiatrist read the script and said;
'I am your doctor my brothers and sisters.'
'It's a common saying and we too whispered the same line
When we're enrolled to this college.' A colleague interupts.
'But now we're almost cured' Someone muttered.
'What's your religion? ' Doctor inquired a patient
He tells; ' My Dad is a Strong Catholic and mother is a simple Buddhist,
Sister eloped with a Muslim and the youngest brother converted to Hindu.'
'Sorry you need my religion isn't it?
He wants to give me a scholarship to Harvard University it seems.'
My religion is Oxygen.'
'What, A new religion? '
'No doctor the oldest religion since the beginning and once that stopped
All the sages go to hell or Heaven who knows? '
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!