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Best Poems Written by Newton Ranaweera

Below are the all-time best Newton Ranaweera poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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What Am I If Not a Slave

What am I if not a slave?
I cook, clean and mourn;
I wash, sweep and weep
from dawn to fall of night.

I do nothing but cooking;
I cook all day,
three times a day,
from dawn to fall of night.

What are you if not a master?
You eat, teach and cheat;
you write, drink and sleep
from dawn to fall of night.

For three long decades,
I’ve cleaned your dishes:
empty, dirty dishes
from dawn to fall of night. 

What’s marriage if not serfdom?
You are my master;
I am merely a slave.
You do your part; I mine.

From dawn to fall of night
and back to break of day.



A 1st placement in the following contest (judged on Aug. 24, 2020: It's not really a contest, rather it's an opportunity to showcase our first poem on Poetry Soup.)
Your first poem on Poetry Soup
Sponsor: Silent One

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Catharsis: the Love Mantra

Ah, ‘Love’! a lover’s repeated mantra!
I see me mutter it, just now, very now.
Sigh I high, a busy, burning furnace,
scrolling lines with aching, grieving woes;
she, a charmed worm, wriggles, snorts,
while floating on a fluffy, velvety cloud.

Is this repeated mantra pricier like a jewel: 
a sapphire, a diamond, pregnant with 
quintuplets? I know she never touched,
- she grieves! -  a sapphire or a diamond.
Even necklaces howl at her golden neck —    
It’s only a dream: a fluffy, airy dream,
A snorting, never wakening, dream.

When I say, “Love”, LUST - in me 
SMILES: luscious, vicious, LUST  —
that stays like a cat-snake, light-red, 
cool inside “Love”, coiled - hiding —
its head in mid of his slithering body,  
and approaches its prey - the victim 
of love – STRAIGHT! - straight at night. 

Jealousy, the quintuplet brother of Lust, 
chuckles on hearing my mantra, "Love",  
“There exists a hairy thinness between 
Love and Me. We’re quintuplets”. 
On my face, jealousy reads sky-rising
Flames in Troy and in an ivory pearl, 

And I see Theseus puffing a mount  
of flames at Hippolytus
and Love drowning in rising flames — 
and other two quintuplet brothers moving,
blindfolded, round and round the dazzling pyre. 


*A 3rd Place* in the following contest (Judged on Jan. 5, 2021)

Jan. 4, 2020 (originally posted on Dec. 2, 2020)
Your best free verse 2020 Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: John Hamilton 

* A 2nd Place* in the following contest (judged on Dec. 10, 2020)

Dec. 2, 2020
Catharsis Poetry Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Silent One 


Inspiration from my own poem, “Jealousy” (published in 2018)

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

King Oedipus: Foreshadowing

We hang on hints or clues to see what's to come next;
I'll cite examples as proofs from a well-known text.   

He that crawls in fours when rooster gleefully calls,
Walks in twos like the blazing sun, but soon he falls;
Here's a hint, clue or foreshadowing to foresee
His fall from a life's precipice … and it's a key.

One comes in, blooming and wearing a laurel wreath,
And this bubbling signal, we know, should stop him breathe; 
He fights a fierce fight at a place, where three roads meet;
And so soon, we raise the blanket and hear ... three tweet.

A man comes with no eyesight to solve the riddle,
And predicts that sinner stands boldly, right middle,
And he that mocks him for his ill-fated eyesight, 
Would leave the city ... groping wearily ... at night.

At last, that man with the clearest eyesight we see 
Leave the stage and us in threes as a beaten bee.

12 syllables in each line

A 1st Place in the following contest (judged on Feb. 10, 2021)

Feb.9, 2021 (Originally posted on Nov. 25, 2020)
The Gem That Slipped Through The Cracks Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Edward Ibeh 


A 2nd Place in the following contest (judged on Jan. 8, 2021)
Podium Placing Promise (5)
Sponsored by: Brian Strand

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

I Met That Star In a Hamlet

I met that star, with my name on; I met
That twinkling star, a beacon, lovely one; 
I met her in a hamlet—less spoiled—yet 
We met when homeward sun his cart did run.

She often tip-toed with her mother star,
To the field to cut grains or feed her cow,
While blinking slyly, like an angled spar
At her love, as she’s doing here, just now.

She was the peahen, and I...the peacock.
Drowned in our astral love, we did dance;
Just forgetting how other stars did flock,
We danced, diving in our hypnotic trance.

I gaze in my dreams at blue star-lit sky
And then see two lovely stars gleaming high.

Revised

* A 3rd Place*  in the following contest (judged on Dec. 31, 2020)

Dec. 29, 2020
Podium placing promise (2) Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Brian Strand

* A 2nd Place* in the following contest (judged on Nov. 12, 2020) 
 
Nov. 10, 2020
There is a star with my name on it Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Silent One

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

Waves of Loneliness

Waves of the sea of darkness
Break …. Break … Break
against cotton cloud rocks,
and heighten my loneliness.  

Calves that hopped around,
and bulls that smelled the scent
of love, and butted their heads 
against brook banks, have gone…

Leaving me, in rising darkness.
Shepard boys who guarded them,
caressing their manes and horns, 
have left me, in rising darkness. 

Bird youths that sang to amuse
bird damsels that tossed their heads,
balancing their legs to violins' tune,
have left me, in rising darkness. 

Tired old Sun that gently stroked 
my heart with his tenderly smile, 
through foliage and branches, 
has left me, in rising darkness. 

All that amused me have gone,
Leaving loneliness and darkness.


*A 1st Place* in the following contest (judged on Nov. 30, 2020)

Nov. 29, 2020
UN-RHY-ME Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Brian Strand

Inspiration from my own poem, “Where have they all gone?” (published in 2018)
And Tennyson’s “Break, Break, Break”.

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

Mind

My roaming mind
I married to a Muse; 
O, I’ve lost my life,
For, he gallops now.

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

Mother Love

My personal favourite

She ran; madly she ran,
asking for mustard seeds,
only some, a little,
a handful of mustard seeds
to cure her son.

She ran; madly she ran
from one house to another,
where none had ever died,
asking for mustard seeds,
from a family of immortals.
“She is mad; her endeavor is mad;
it's as futile as that mother squirrel's act,”
onlookers thought; none spoke,
but she ran; madly she ran.

She started at dawn
when dew was glistening,
and bubbles were dancing
to the tune of kerosene lamps.
She ran; madly she ran,
passing the dying buds and roses,
burnt by the scorching sun,
but still she ran; madly she ran.

She ran; madly she ran,
with no food, with no drink,
with disheveled hair, loosened clothes,
while tears of blood were pouring
from her aching, motherly breasts.
She ran; still she ran, madly she ran.
“Sister, your run is mad;
we are mortals but not immortals,”
they said, but she ran; madly she ran.

She ran; faster she ran;
madly she ran,
until the sun died,
the life giver and killer died,
and till houses and trees wore
black veils to mourn for his death,
she ran, madly she ran.

Suddenly, her tears stopped;
she stopped, but with her son —
the lifeless flower,
still in her arms.

2nd place in the following Premiere Contest (judged on Oct. 18, 2021). 
Contest: YOUR PERSONAL FAVORITE, NO. 2 Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: L MILTON HANKINS



A 1st Place in the following contest (judged on May 23, 20210
Originally posted on Jan. 16, 2017
Most Original Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Juliet Ligon


*Honourable Mention* in the following contest (judged on Oct. 25, 2020)
April 9, 2018
COMPLETELY YOUR CHOICE (32)any form any theme Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Brian Strand 

*7th Place* in the following contest (judged on Oct. 22, 2020)

April 9, 2018
old poems, FREE VERSE (003) Poetry Contest
Contest Sponsor: Poet Destroyer A

~9th Place~
Premiere Contest: Non-Romantic Love
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
Judged: 04/11/2018
April 9, 2018

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

Psychic Woes

Flutters a crocodile gecko his thick-edged tail,
And licks his sticky lips with his twisted tongue; 
His eyes ablaze with fire, and in his abdomen, 
Rotten corpses stand erect like haunting tombs.

And now - withering thuds of heavy strides
Drown the boulder, the child’s hideout, 
And a wretch with a deep cut on his right jaw 
Towers, beclouding him like a deformed ghost. 

A tender home gecko breaks his own tiny tail 
As a trick to escape from Crocodile’s grip,
Yet Crocodile lands on the tailor-less soul, 
Seizes him by his neck, and they wrestle and fall.

Wresting - rustling stops, and sky stands higher;
Nature’s slow somber music laments in a choir. 


14 lines

Jan. 12, 2021 (Originally posted on Aug. 11, 2020)
 PODIUM PLACING PROMISE(7) Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Brian Strand 

 *A 2nd Place* in the following contest (judged on Aug. 18, 2020)
Aug. 11, 2020
INFLICTIONS Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Silent One

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

A Discarded Plant



A
discarded 
plant was I

that a traveler,
a kind, gentle traveler,

picked gently up, and
planted in a rich, fertile land

to make me a tree,
a big, blossoming tree,

but no, - not for him,
yet for all the passers-by.

I’m that tree, that tree,
that he wanted me to be,

with boughs so bent and so low,
with fruits full of ripe and so raw,

caring those that come under my bough,

yet
he cannot see me,
because
he’s
Nor
More


*A 1st Place* in the following contest (judged on Nov. 29, 2020)

Nov. 23, 2020
SHAPE UP Poetry Contest 
Contest Sponsor: Brian Strand


Originally, I published this piece in 2016 for About Page on My WordsPress account.

Details | Newton Ranaweera Poem

Sleep, My Baby, Nursery Rhyme

Doi, Doi, Doi – Doiya, Babaa
Bai, Bai, Bai – Baiya, Babaa
Sleep, my darling – darling my baby
Has gone to moon – your Mom, my baby.

Doi, Doi, Doi – Doiya, Babaa
Bai, Bai, Bai – Baiya, Babaa
Moon when blooms – behold, Mom baby
You’ll see there – your Mom, my baby.

Your Mom, an angel – dwells in your dreams
A lovely nymph – she swims in streams 
Doi, Doi, Doi – Doiya, Babaa
Bai, Bai, Bai – Baiya, Babaa.


Inspired by a Sri Lankan Sinhalese lullaby (Refrain is a copy of the original);
doi/doiya and bai/baiya mean ‘sleep’ (imperatives); / babaa is an equivalent to baby. 

March 13, 2021
Nursery Rhyme Poetry Contest
Eve Roper