This compelling debut collection of poems and prose by Dinali Virasinghe takes you on a moving journey of self-enquiry grounded in a passionate love for the Earth and unsettled by the questioning of the systems and structures underpinning our globalised world.

To Not Know

What if there are no absolute answers?

Only questions to contemplate and

intuitions to heed, while

taking every chance to

bask in the sun like a sleepy lizard,

turn clouds into familiar shapes

lying cradled by the ground.

Spin stories, sing songs and

dance to the beat of the drum

with the abandon of a child

who knows not the censure of the

inhibited adulthood that the

modern world presses upon us.

I feel I have

joined the falling people,

slipped through the cracks of modernity

and long to rest easy in not knowing

what will happen.

I see how surety imprisons.

Now is the time to release these shackles

compost the deadening certainties of this age

and send tender shoots into what is beyond.

Journey through tumultuous dark nights

with the twinkling stars

– abode of the ancestors,

and the ever-changing moon

to guide and inspire.

Journey on through the long, lonely days

energised by the sun’s brilliance

– that which feeds all life on Earth.

Let humble doubt illuminate the path.

Can we really know the cosmic ways?

Sit awhile with our Earth.

Heed the Wind’s wily whispering.

Learn the stoic strength of a Mountain.

Develop the deep rooted resilience of a Tree.

Delight in the questions that blossom

when we leave space for creation to enter.

Rush not into answers.

Dance instead.

Dance, child, with wild abandon.

Modernity is loosing its consumptive hold

and in this liminal space

of a crumbling empire

the scariest thing is asked of us awakening ones.

To live fully, as best we can.

To nurture our gifts, so the fruit

nourishes others.

Live so well that when unavoidable death

comes to us and our loved ones,

it is but another step

in our wild, merry dance.

Creation reaching out and then folding

back into itself.

Defying answers and rationale.

For what fixed facts can there be in

a world-in-the-becoming?

Poem From

Meanderings On The Margins

Written By

Dinali Virasinghe

Meanderings on the Margins explores themes of purpose, identity, diversity and love. Dinali’s experience of moving to Australia at a young age, her travels as an adult and work as an environmentalist have shaped her ideas about belonging and how to live well in a world falling apart.

Dinali Virasinghe only began writing poetry in her 30s, finding catharsis in expressing herself in this form. She published her debut book Meandering on the Margins in 2022 and has her own blog.