Black Rose

Shunning the sun
Waiting for night to prosper
Blossom opening
Velvet darkness descending
Upon dark petals
Thorns turning outward
Ready to draw
The wine of life
From those who
Would suppress it
Or crush it under foot.
It remembers.
There will be no mercy.

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
Writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
From Srilanka

Mighty Warrior

Lucifer chose you
When you least expected
He Called:
"Oh, Mighty Warrior"
The power filled you
Cold Chills of awakening
Fire filled your heart
It shook the walls
You ran through
Your House
Looking for Him, but
Found nothing
Except silence.
Was it He?
Years pass and
Long Have you waited
For Him to return
And speak again
Those words of
Awakening
In your ear.

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
Writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
From Srilanka

IF

If you want to stand,
You have to be ready to fall.

If you want to create,
You have to be ready to destroy.

If you want to write,
You have to be ready to erase.

If you want to win,
You have to be ready to lose.

If you want to be happy,
You have to be ready to be sad.

If you want to possess,
You have to be ready to let go.

If you want to be praised,
You have to be ready to be criticized.

If you want to go up,
You have to be ready to go down.

If you want to laugh,
You have to be ready to cry.

If you want to get,
You have to be ready to give.

If you want to start,
You have to be ready to stop.

If you want to live,
You have to be ready to die.

Nothing lasts forever.

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
Writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
From Srilanka

The Teen Thing

Imagine you taking a trip in a car. It's an unknown area. The driver is you . You're heading down an open road. All of a sudden you reach a turning point. There are no road signs and you have no map. Two ways to go. A decision has to be made. The right one will bring you to your destination-joy and happiness, but the wrong one will bring sorrow and disappointment.

Freeze this exact moment, and think of what's going on in the mind of a 17 or 18 year old teenager. If I am not mistaken, it would be the same. The only difference is that you are not alone. There will be people who affect your decision. It might be your friends, or more special friends as girl or boyfriends, teachers and even par­ents. These above people can make your decision easier, but they can most certainly make it tougher.

Teenage life - a certain turning point in life, where a person can be made or broken, where the right path would take him/her to the best things in life and the wrong bring disaster. Now I would like to discuss the effect the above mentioned people make towards your decision.

First let's take parents the people who have gone through it all. They were once teenagers and they've had teenage feelings especially about the opposite sex, but when they become adults and then parents, they tend to forget those feelings. Then when their children (that's us) reach that age it is they the children who have to suffer. Most of them have been told to stay away from having girl or boyfriends and concentrate on studies. What does this do? It makes the teen more impatient even angry. With this hatred they want to get even. What happens? They have relationships on the sly, get into watching pornographic material, and even getting involved with prostitutes. In the end they end up with nothing. This is a situation where the parents' attitude helps you make the wrong decision. Par­ents however do most of the time try to help their children make the right one through good advice, but the above mentioned problem does exist.

Now to the friends. All teenagers have their gang of friends or click. These friends play a major role in the life of a teenager. Through good times and bad times they tend to stick with each other. They know all your secrets and personal stuff, and in the time of need they give advice, advice probably even parents wouldn't have thought of. When it comes to decision making, they are the ones who tend to guide you, at least most of the time, although if you're in the wrong click, it's a whole different ballgame. Peer pressure can certainly break a person down to pieces. If they get you into drugs, cigarettes and alcohol it would mean disaster.

There's no stopping it. When you become a teenager you tend to have a liking towards the opposite sex. It's nature's way. At least to have a few friends of the opposite sex is a must in a teen's mind. So many of them have girl or boyfriends, with parental permission or not. How these people affect the decision of a teen is quite complex. So I leave it to those who do have girl or boyfriends to decide for themselves as to how they affect their lives. Be it negatively or posi­tively, admit it they do effect them in a major way.

What is education? Is it just the gathering of information through books and in the process memorizing the facts? I don't think so. To me education means the development of the mind to a cer­tain stage from which a character could be moulded. Education doesn't necessarily have anything to do with studies. It could hap­pen through sports, an area which certainly does test the mind to its limits. The people who guide you through this whole educating proc­ess are the teachers. What role does a teacher play in a teen's life? Is it only to tell him/her to study this, memorize that and so on? Hopefully not. A teacher should be able to talk freely with the teen.

They should be able to teach students not only matters in textbooks but subjects like sex education a topic which everyone wants to know about, but are afraid or too shy to talk about. This then brings up the topic of our education system, but if I were to write about that it would be another essay, so I'll leave it there.

Teenage life is such a complex time that I think even the great gurus would find it difficult to figure it out. So, in conclusion I would like to state that if you're a teenager who's reading this, have fun, enjoy the ride, but just think of what I've said above and see if it relates to you as well

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
Writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
From Srilanka

Aliens Exist

A majority of people think that planet earth is the only heav­enly body known to support life but unfortunately they will have to think again. Our galaxy contains billions of stars, most like our own sun. So like our sun they could also be the centre of other planetary systems. Science confirmed this after the discovery of a large planet orbiting the star 47 Ursea Majoris 34 light years dis­tant from planet earth. In such systems there is a large possibility that a planet similar in physical properties to earth could exist and such a planet could support a unique diversity of life. Extraterres­trial life has long been suspected to exist and according to some scholars, the Pyramids of Giza, the lines of Nazaca, the South American civilizations and many other ancient wonders are the influential work of aliens.

Even during modern times many people claim to have wit­nessed an unidentified flying object, commonly known as a UFO. Others claim to have been abducted by UFO occupants who are said to be aliens, either 7 footer giants or 3 feet tall midgets. These beings are said to perform experiments on abductees, analyzing stuff such as the DNA. Some unlucky abductees are never re­turned and become permanent exhibits in the extraterrestrial would of science.

Science has tried hard to explain this phenomenon but so far has not been able to present a valid explanation. Many scientists do not want to accept that there is other life in the universe and simply denounce UFO encounters as hoaxes. In case of pho­tographs they state that they are photographs of weather balloons, irregular clouds, shooting stars or even insects. They also blame the human imagination as a culprit for this phenomenon.

Whether it is the work of extraterrestrials, paranoids or fame greedy humans we shall not know for sure, but we do know that science has not offered a reasonable explanation.

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
from Srilanka

Do You Believe in Mystery Creatures

Ancient mythology is full of stories of strange creatures such as dragons, ghouls and goblins. However in modern times after great strides the science of zoology mystery creatures that defy all attempts of capture still roam the world's forests. They stay one step ahead of man's quest for the trath and rule the jungles with illusive prestige. The so called man - beasts are examples for such illusive creatures. Man-beasts such as the Bigfoot of North America, the Yeti of the Himalayas, the Almas of Russia and the Caucasus mountains and the Hibagon of Japan'are said to be man like in shape but with large frames, dark body hair, apelike faces and statures of over 6-71/2 feet.

Science treats the same way it treats UFOs and gives simi­lar explanations. Stating that they are creations of the human im­agination. However some do agree that surviving specimens of the giant Ice Age fossil ape Gigantopithicus could be behind this phenomenon but it is certain that science has to go a long way to answer this big question.

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
from Srilanka

COURAGE - TO KEEP ON KEEPING ON

It is so satisfying
To give vent to our feelings
Give blow for blow - with hard words
To lose control of ourselves
Let the poison of anger
Resentment, envy and pride-
Enslave us in their bonds.

What fools we are - as humans
To forget that vital truth.
The crown of His creation -
We are But alas how weak
The utmost height of glory -
We can reach. But all we do
Is crawl in the dust and mud.

Inborn in us is courage
Compassion, love and patience.
Let not pride take hold of you
But aspire to heights above.
No mountain peaks were ever reached
By cowards. The Lord needs men
Of grit, so keep on keeping on.

Endurance is another
Measurement of courage
To some folks that was given
As God's special gift of love.
So as you face life's trials
Be assured - the strength He'll grant
Courage - to keep on keeping on

N-ko-ra returns
Nishan Shanaka Korala Gamage
Writes to
Spontaneous Combustion
From Srilanka