Comments on: Death at Noon http://groundviews.org/2009/01/10/death-at-noon/ Groundviews is an award winning Sri Lankan citizen journalism initiative Fri, 25 May 2012 05:42:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Nalaka Gunawardene http://groundviews.org/2009/01/10/death-at-noon/#comment-4353 Nalaka Gunawardene Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:57:56 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=1061#comment-4353 Thank you, Vivimarie, for rendering our collective numbness into your elegant poem. Thank you, too, Malinda for yours. You have spoken for many of us. I'm the person who suggested on Dinidu's blog that our own poets respond to this unfolding tragedy. It was more a plea than a challenge, because, as I wrote in my own blog within hours of Lasantha's murder: "For once, I’m at a loss for words. When prose fails, we must turn to verse which is always more potent. I remember Paster Martin Niemoeller. I remember Niyi Osundare. I remember Adrian Mitchell." <a href="http://movingimages.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/lasantha-wickramatunga-in-memoriam/" target="_blank">http://movingimages.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/lasa...</a> The inspiration for my plea to Lankan poets came from "Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems Inspired by Ken Saro-Wiwa" -- a collection of poems in tribute to Nigerian poet, author, environmentalist and minority rights activist (for his Ogoni people) who was executed by Nigeria's military on 10 November 1995. More about him is found at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa," target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa,</a>and about the poetry volume itself at: <a href="http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/poetry.htm" target="_blank">http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/poetry.htm</a> As Lasantha goes on his final journey on Jan 12, I'm still struggling to put my own tribute together. For now, Ken Saro-Wiwa's celebrated poem (from which the book's title is derived), comes to mind: "Dance your anger and your joys, Dance the military guns to silence, Dance oppression and injustice to death, Dance my people, For we have seen tomorrow And there is an Ogoni star in the sky." Thank you, Vivimarie, for rendering our collective numbness into your elegant poem. Thank you, too, Malinda for yours. You have spoken for many of us.

I'm the person who suggested on Dinidu's blog that our own poets respond to this unfolding tragedy. It was more a plea than a challenge, because, as I wrote in my own blog within hours of Lasantha's murder:
"For once, I’m at a loss for words. When prose fails, we must turn to verse which is always more potent.
I remember Paster Martin Niemoeller.
I remember Niyi Osundare.
I remember Adrian Mitchell."
http://movingimages.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/lasa…

The inspiration for my plea to Lankan poets came from "Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems Inspired by Ken Saro-Wiwa" — a collection of poems in tribute to Nigerian poet, author, environmentalist and minority rights activist (for his Ogoni people) who was executed by Nigeria's military on 10 November 1995. More about him is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa,and about the poetry volume itself at: http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/poetry.htm

As Lasantha goes on his final journey on Jan 12, I'm still struggling to put my own tribute together. For now, Ken Saro-Wiwa's celebrated poem (from which the book's title is derived), comes to mind:

"Dance your anger and your joys,
Dance the military guns to silence,
Dance oppression and injustice to death,
Dance my people,
For we have seen tomorrow
And there is an Ogoni star in the sky."

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